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MAY  30  191f^ 


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BV   1475    .C65    1918 

Cope,  Henry  Frederick,  1870- 

1923. 
Religious  education  in  the 

church 


RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 
IN  THE  CHURCH 


RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 
IN   THE  CHURCH 


A 


MAY  30  1911 

BY 
HENRY  FREDERICK  COPE 

General  Secbetary  of  the  Religious  Education  Association 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 
1918 


COPTRIOHT,    1918,   BY 

CHARLES  SCRIBNERS  SONS 


PubUshed  April,  1918 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    The  Problem  of  Adjustment  ......        1 

The  questions  facing  the  church.  An  age  of  institutional 
specialization.  The  significance  of  present-day  criticism.  The 
diflaculties  of  adjustment.  New  adjustments.  Local  situations. 
Effects  of  economic  changes.  Competition  and  duplication 
among  social  agencies. 

11.    What  Is  the  Function  of  the  Church?     .     .       16 

Function  depends  on  nature  and  on  social  needs.  The  social 
nature  of  the  church  as  a  clew.  The  one  great  organization 
for  the  spiritual  life.  The  spiritual  life  dependent  on  many 
conditions.  An  ideal  lost  in  the  development  of  methods.  The 
only  hope  lies  in  people.  Society  to-day  needs  the  church. 
A  practical  function  of  deaUng  with  persons  to  develop  their 
higher  powers.     An  educational  function. 

III.  What  do  We  Mean  by  Education?  ....      28 

A  personal  process.  A  social  process  as  dealing  with  groups 
of  persons.  A  moral  process  because  social  relations  involve 
moral  relations.  Education  deals  with  persons  of  an  infinite 
universe  and  is  therefore  a  spiritual  process.  A  reUgious  process 
because  it  deals  with  a  whole  person.  Religious  life  fimda- 
mental. 

IV.  The  Meaning  of  Education  in  the  Church    .      38 

Difficulty  of  thinking  of  the  church  as  an  educator  due  to  pop- 
ular misconceptions  of  education.  The  personal-social  aim 
of  the  church  makes  education  inevitable.  Faith  in  life  as 
growth.  Educational  aim  calls  for  an  educational  programme. 
Programme  based  on  life  processes.  Determined  by  scientific 
knowledge. 

V.    The  Function  of  Public  Worship     ....      50 

What  is  the  popular  idea  of  church  services?  Why  have 
worship?  The  social  necessity.  The  educational  principles: 
Growth  by  association,  by  the  organization  of  the  social  mind, 
by  the  control  and  direction  of  feeling  and  will. 


vi  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

VI.    Congregational  Teaching   ......      66 

The  prophetic  mission.  Preaching  is  teaching.  Learning 
to  teach.  The  opportunity  of  teaching.  The  'preacher's 
pecuhar  message.  Teaching  by  worship.  Directing  and 
controlling  worship, 

VII.    The  Function  of  Evangelism 78 

Relations  of  the  evangeUstic  and  the  educational  aims. 
Misconceptions  as  to  educational  aim.  Menace  of  evangel- 
istism.  A  sane  evangel  and  a  misleading  revivalism.  The 
use  of  the  evangelistic  method. 

VIII.    Educational  Evangelism  and  Adults      .     .      90 

The  problem  of  the  passing  crowd.  How  to  secure  its  at- 
tention. Lessons  drawn  from  great  campaigns  of  adver- 
tising and  of  popular  education. 

IX.    The  Educational  Evangel 99 

The  educational  method  for  the  evangelistic  purposes. 
DeaUng  with  vital  processes.  Tested  by  hfe  products  in 
whole  of  persons.  Growth  under  law;  continuous  growth. 
The  place  of  the  child.     Conversion. 

X.    The  World-Wide  Programme 109 

The  wider  evangelism.  The  church  in  a  world  society; 
the  problems  of  world-neighboring.  Education  in  the 
world-life.     The   church   and   missionary   agencies, 

XL    The  Social  Life 120 

Educational  significance  of  social  living.  Church  as  a 
school  of  social  living.  Opportunities  in  the  Sunday-school. 
"Socials."    Yoxmg  people's  groups.     Social  life  in  action. 

XIL    Social   Service   in   the   Educational   Pro- 
gramme        132 

The  Christian  must  seek  a  Christian  society.  Mixed 
motives.  The  educational  aim  makes  service  essential. 
Church  an  ideal  society,  which  seeks  the  ideal  in  all  society. 
Training  in  service,  courses  and  work. 

XIII.    The  Church  and  Community  Welfare    .     .     147 

The  rural  community,  its  social  changes,  needs,  oppor- 
tunities for  church.  Need  of  church  co-operation.  City 
churches.  The  amusement  problem.  Recreation  surveys. 
The  community  coimcil. 


CONTENTS  vii 


XIV.    Training  Workers 162 

Dependence  on  lay  service.  Planning  for  new  workers. 
Teacher  training  inadequate.  Committee  on  training. 
Courses  of  preparation.  Preparing  children.  Training 
by  experience.  Graded  experience.  Character  results 
of  training. 


XV.    Young  People 173 

A  perennial  problem.  The  development  of  the  young 
people's  societies.  Youth's  crowded  programme.  The 
hope  in  an  educational  programme.  The  primary  motive 
with  youth.  Purpose.  Needs  of  youth:  personal  guid- 
ance; group  relatedness;  purposeful  activity.  Characteris- 
tics of  activity.  Normal  relations  in  the  church.  Special 
gatherings. 


XVI.    The  Physical 190 

Church  dealing  with  a  unified  person.  Interrelatedness 
of  physical  and  spiritual.  The  different  attitudes  of  religion 
toward  the  physical.  Jesus  and  the  body.  Church  the 
parent  of  present-day  physical  ministry.  Responsible  for 
public  standards.  Education.  Instruction  in  sex  as  part  of 
health  programme.  Training  parents.  Incidental  instruc- 
tion of  young.  Training  for  boys  and  girls.  The  motive 
for  physical  equipment. 


XVII.    The  Athletic  Problem    .......     201 

Responsibilities,  direct  and  indirect.  Boy  Scouts;  Camp- 
fire  Girls.  Bible  Class  Athletic  League.  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and 
Y.  W.  C.  A.  co-operation  with  chiu-ch.  The  gymnasium, 
but  better,  the  playground.     Direction.     Standard  tests. 


XVIII.    The  Church  and  the  Family 209 

The  power  of  groups  and  group  loyalties.  Dependence  on 
family,  extension  field  of  church.  To  save  itself  church 
must  save  family,  secure  its  rights.  Developing  right  ideals. 
Training  home-makers.     Conferences. 

XIX.    The  Church  and  the  Public  School      .     .     221 

Mutual  dependence  of  church  and  school.  The  American 
situation  as  to  religious  instruction.  Various  experiments 
described.  Conditions  of  success.  Community  unity. 
Principles  of  any  experiment. 


viii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XX.    Organizing  for  Religious  Education      .     .     234 

Bringing  general  ideals  to  definite  practice.  The  need  for 
instruction  in  religion.  Arranging  a  programme.  General 
leadership,  denominational  and  local.  Local  direction. 
Financial  support.  Equipment.  Curriculum  of  instruction 
and  training. 

XXI.    The  Direction  of  Religious  Education      .     246 

Direction  through  the  committee  on  education.  The  fac- 
tual basis  of  work.  The  analysis  of  the  field  and  the  task. 
Supervision.     An  employed  director. 

XXII.    The  Church  and  New  Days 256 

Religious  education  gives  the  church  its  present-day  ade- 
quate fimction.  A  defhiite  task.  Deepens  religious  service. 
Gives  new  confidence.  Prophetic  development  of  spirit. 
Value  of  the  historical  method  of  Bible-study.  Present- 
day  reaUty.  The  social  message.  Attraction  for  youth. 
An  ideal  in  realization. 


Index 271 


RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 
IN  THE  CHURCH 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  PROBLEM  OF  ADJUSTMENT 

A  FEW  years  ago  there  appeared  a  striking  essay  en- 
titled "Heckling  the  Church."  It  called  attention  to 
the  fact  that  every  person  felt  fully  qualified  to  sit  in  judg- 
ment on  the  chui'ch,  and  to  exercise  freely  his  gifts  of  crit- 
icism in  this  direction.  Captious  criticism  is  annoying, 
but,  for  the  church  it  is  better  to  be  annoyed  than  to  be 
ignored.  If  the  latter  should  come  to  pass  the  case  would 
be  serious  indeed.  The  emphasis  of  several  generations  on 
the  primacy  of  material  things  has  led  to  the  popular  assump- 
tion that  we  do  not  need  spiritual  institutions.  Now  we 
have  a  renaissance  of  the  spiritual,  under  the  stress  of  a 
world  agony.  But  there  is  a  tendency  to  feel  that  the 
spiritual  is  so  implicit  in  all  things  that  it  does  not  need 
explicit  expression  anywhere.  Men  ask  whether  a  spiritual 
age  needs  a  special  religious  institution.  Further,  various 
social  agencies  have  taken  over  many  of  the  activities  of 
the  churches.  Men  are  asking  whether  in  the  social  organ- 
ization of  to-day  there  remains  any  special  task  or  place 
for  the  church. 

These  are  the  questions  the  present-day  church  must  face. 
They  are  not  essentially  hostile  questions.  They  are  ex- 
pressed by  persons  of  serious  minds.  They  rise  within  the 
church  rather  than  without.  They  are  not  the  question- 
ings of  an  anti-religious  spirit.    They  come  from  those  with 

1 


2  THE  PROBLEM  OF  ADJUSTMENT 

whom  religion  is  taken  for  granted  as  a  factor  in  life.  The 
religious  institution  is  not  taken  for  granted.  The  questions 
take  most  serious  form  under  present-day  economic  pres- 
sure. They  usually  have  as  a  background  this  inquiry: 
Precisely  where  does  this  special  rehgious  institution  fit 
into  the  scheme  of  things  to-day? 

The  world  is  not  indifferent  to  religion;  it  is  becoming 
more  conscious  of  its  spiritual  needs.  There  is  almost  a 
religious  devotion  in  the  principal  charge  against  the  church, 
that  "it  is  not  on  to  its  job."  This  seems  to  mean  not  alone 
that  it  is  inefficient,  but  that  it  does  not  perceive  its  task. 
That  is  the  heart  of  the  problem,  the  lack  of  a  sufficiently 
clear,  distinct,  and  definite  function,  one  that  will  meet  a 
need  otherwise  unmet,  one  that  will  convince  the  minds,, 
enlist  the  wills,  and  win  the  hearts  of  all  men  and  women 
of  spiritual  perceptions. 

The  problem  of  adjustment  faces  every  great  social  insti- 
tution. This  is  the  case  because  society  is  ever  changing  in 
its  development,  and  institutions  change  and  develop  also. 
For  instance,  the  place  of  the  public  school  is  fairly  well 
settled,  yet  there  remain  some  areas  of  responsibility  in  dis- 
pute between  the  school  and  the  family,  and,  in  some  coun- 
tries, large  areas  in  dispute  between  the  schools  and  the 
churches. 

The  problem  is  intensified  for  the  church,  on  the  one  hand, 
by  the  fact  that  this  is  an  age  of  institutional  specialization, 
and,  on  the  other,  by  the  power  of  tradition  in  a  religious 
institution.  The  age  demands  that  the  church  accept  a 
clearly  defined  field  and  become  responsible  for  this  alone. 
It  demands  that  the  task  of  the  church  be  adjusted  to  the 
tasks  of  other  agencies.    To  do  this  involves  an  analysis  of 


LEARNING  FROM  THE  CRITICS  3 

responsibilities,  a  study  of  the  special  powers  and  aptitudes 
of  the  church,  and  a  selection  of  essential  tasks.  It  means 
change,  and  change  is  difficult  in  proportion  to  the  age  and 
influence  of  an  institution.  The  church  has  to  struggle 
against  its  own  institutional  crystallization.  A  host  of 
inherited  activities,  bound  by  the  ties  of  tradition  and 
sentiment,  so  engross  the  energies,  bewilder  the  mind,  and 
obscure  the  vision  that  there  are  many  who  are  wholly  lack- 
ing in  any  clear  concepts  of  the  essential  nature  of  the  insti- 
tution, of  the  work  it  has  to  do,  and  of  why  it  should  be  done. 
The  result  is  erratic  effort,  confused  thought,  and  that 
uncertainty  of  mind  which  undermines  conviction,  and  re- 
sults in  a  half-hearted  allegiance  within  and  a  whole- 
hearted indifference  without. 

LEARNING  FROM  THE  CRITICS 

Critics  rarely  acquire  the  grace  of  constructive  criticism; 
no  one  tarries  long  enough  to  state  what  the  work  of  a 
church  really  is  or  ought  to  be.  We  are  told  that  the 
churches  fail  to  relieve  poverty;  they  are  helpless  before 
social  oppression  and  injustice;  their  message  is  archaic; 
their  methods  obsolete;  their  metier  gone;  they  do  not  preach 
the  gospel;  they  preach  only  the  gospel;  they  do  not  teach 
politics,  amuse  the  young,  teach  sex  hygiene,  solve  the  trust 
problem,  clean  the  civic  stables,  solve  international  difficul- 
ties, or  settle  the  so-called  social  problem.  The  things  they 
leave  undone  are  legion.  Often  the  very  persons  who  de- 
mand that  the  church  define  its  social  field  and  maintain  the 
fences  thereof  are  the  ones  who,  when  any  moral  problem 
perplexes  society,  turn  to  the  church  and  say:  "You  do  it." 

Perhaps  modern  criticism,  coupled  with  high  expecta- 


4  THE  PROBLEM  OF  ADJUSTMENT 

tions,  is  a  compliment  to  the  church  as  a  recognition  of  her 
courage  and  power.  It  clearly  indicates  the  changed 
world-conception  of  the  place  of  the  church;  she  is  no 
longer  a  "little  garden  walled  around";  she  is  out  in  the 
hurried,  tossing  stream  of  human  affairs.  The  question  is, 
whether  she  has  any  particular  business  there.  It  is  fre- 
quently assumed  that  she  is  incompetent  for  the  great  tasks 
popularly  assigned  to  her. 

But  popular  criticism  is  careless  and  often  unfair.  By 
what  process  of  reasoning  are  we  justified  in  blaming  the 
churches  because  there  are  thousands  of  hungry  men  seek- 
ing work  in  the  cities  ?  Might  we  not,  with  greater  justice, 
blame  the  public  schools  where  these  men  secured  life 
training — such  as  it  was?  Or  might  we  not  blame  the 
theatre,  for  instance  ?  True,  the  theatre  has  nothing 
directly  to  do  with  the  situation,  but  it  has  the  media  for 
a  message,  and  it  withdraws  much  money  which  might 
employ  thousands.  The  point  is  not  that  either  the  theatre 
or  the  church  is  blameworthy  or  otherwise,  but  that  blame 
cannot  be  assigned  until  responsibilities  are  determined.  We 
censure  hastily  because  we  do  not  stop  to  ask,  precisely 
what  is  the  social  function  of  this  institution?  and  we  do 
not  seek  to  determine  its  social  relations  and  responsibility 
toward  other  institutions  and  toward  each  of  our  out- 
standing modern  problems.  Even  such  careless  criticism 
helps,  however,  by  suggesting  the  need  for  a  careful  study 
of  the  real  task  of  the  church. 

We  must  not  forget  the  criticisms  and  we  can  hardly 
question  the  sincerity  of  the  large  group  of  ecclesiastical 
aliens.  These  men  and  women  are  keenly  open  to  spiritual 
values;  they  have  the  vision  of  the  validity  and  value  of  the 


THE  STRESS  OF  READJUSTMENT  5 

spiritual  life;  they  think  of  all  men  as  more  than  machines, 
and  better  than  eating,  talking  animals.  Many  of  those 
who  criticise  the  church  because  it  does  not  minister  to  the 
spiritual  needs  of  men  have  come  to  its  table  and  found  only 
dishes,  menus,  cook-books,  and  disquisitions  on  dietetics. 
They  are  seriously  concerned  and  deeply  disappointed 
because  often  in  their  experiences  churches  have  failed  to 
think  of  people  as  persons,  and  failed  in  the  unique  task  of 
stimulating  and  developing  people  as  religious  beings. 
These  critics  are  essentially  religious  people,  but  they  are 
outside  of  the  churches  because  their  very  religious  life  came 
near  to  being  choked  in  its  dry  and  dusty  clouds  of  theological 
argumentation.  They  found  the  spiritual  dwarfed  in  an 
atmosphere  of  mean  and  petty  striving  after  offices,  social 
distinctions,  and  personal  advantages,  or  forgotten  in  the  ex- 
citement, the  hustling  and  bustling  of  bizarre  performances. 
To  these  people  it  seems  as  though  there  were  two  types  of 
chtu'ches  to-day;  the  one  resembles  a  monastery  into  which 
men  retire  once  a  week  to  hear  the  mystic  phrases  of  the 
past,  and  to  consider  those  things  the  values  of  which  are 
determined  by  their  remoteness  from  life.  The  other  type 
seems  more  like  a  noisy,  dusty  mill  in  which  a  hundred 
machines  are  whirling,  and  a  thousand  people  hustling  and 
shouting,  now  in  the  unison  and  abandon  of  a  common  feel- 
ing, and  now  in  a  pandemonium  of  conflict  called  competi- 
tion; but  no  one  can  tell  what  it  is  all  about,  or  show  that  it 
issues  in  aught  but  noise  and  numbers. 

THE  STRESS  OF  READJUSTMENT 

The  wise  man  welcomes  all  honest  criticism.    He  tries  to 
get  the  critic's  point  of  view.    He  soothes  any  pain  he  may 


6  THE  PROBLEM  OF  ADJUSTMENT 

suffer  by  remembering  the  words  about  the  wounds  of  a 
friend.  The  critic  may  be  wrong  in  his  conclusions,  but  he 
must  be  right  in  some  of  his  premises.  He  bases  his  judg- 
ments on  observation.  To  him  it  seems  that  the  modern 
churches  are  engrossed  in  a  distracting  struggle  for  existence. 
Many  of  them  appear  to  be  willing  to  grasp  at  any  straw  in 
the  flood,  to  accept  any  device  for  their  own  preservation. 
One  scheme  is  tried  after  another.  A  nation-wide  cam- 
paign, which  depends  for  its  success  on  advertising,  is  adopted 
to  get  men  into  churches.  Another  campaign  is  con- 
ducted, patterned  on  the  "eat-an-apple"  slogan  and  the 
"raisin-day"  plans,  to  get  people  to  go  to  church  at  least 
once  a  year.  And  then  he  sees  the  spectacle  of  churches 
outbidding  one  another  for  the  leadership  of  "popular 
preachers"  who  are  sometimes  simply  spectacular  orators. 
Failing  to  keep  pace  with  population  growth,  or  even  to  hold 
their  own  by  sensational  topics  for  sermons* — all  the  sen- 
sation being  usually  in  the  label — or  by  denatured  opera  in 
choirs,  they  hope  to  win  the  world  by  slang,  vaudeville 
antics,  scurrilous  abuse,  and  appeals  to  prejudice  and  igno- 
rance. Is  this  our  present-day  faith  in  a  gift  of  tongues — 
slangy,  slanderous,  and  divorced  from  knowledge?  If  this 
is  the  dependence  of  the  church,  it  is  surely  the  last  resort, 
the  endeavor  of  despair. 

This  is  as  the  critic  sees  the  situation.  Perhaps  he  fails 
to  see  that,  except  for  those  rare  instances  where  single 
churches  seem  to  have  lost  all  consciousness  of  religion, 
these  activities  are  largely  endeavors  to  discover  duties  and 

*  A  city  in  Missouri  was  plastered  with  posters  announcing  as  the 
topic  of  the  sermon  at  one  of  the  churches,  "Hot  Stuff  for  Boys"  (1916). 
Another  advertised  the  topic,  "Skidoo,  Twenty-three." 


SOCIAL  CHANGES  7 

secure  adjustments  in  this  day  of  change.  They  are  essays, 
often  crude  and  short-sighted,  toward  right  relations  and 
adjustments.  Whether  one  approves  or  condemns,  a  little 
thought  will  enable  him  to  recognize  the  phenomena  of 
experimentation. 

This  is  a  period  of  adjustment  for  all  social  institutions. 
Just  as  men  specialize  more  and  more  exactly  in  their  pro- 
fessions, so  society  is  specializing  in  its  activities.  The 
world  does  not  expect  any  one  institution  to  be  proficient 
for  all  the  tasks  of  to-day.  It  does  demand  that  each  one 
become  really  proficient  in  some  special  task,  that  it  shall 
be  fit  to  assume  responsibility  for  that  task.  But  who  shall 
make  the  assignments  ?  No  matter  how  wise  this  generation 
may  be  that  question  has  to  be  settled  largely  by  social  selec- 
tion, by  the  survival  of  the  most  useful  and  efficient.  The 
result  is  that  a  period  of  adjustment  is  a  period  of  struggle. 
There  is  much  experimentation,  some  competition,  some 
criticism,  and  constant  adaptation. 

SOCIAL  CHANGES 

That  the  church  is  engaged  in  a  struggle  for  existence  no 
one  will  question.  Modern  social  life  has  ceased  to  take 
^or  granted  the  leadership  of  the  church.  The  minister  is 
no  longer  the  "parson,"  pre-eminently  the  person  of  the  com- 
munity; the  pulpit  is  no  longer  the  community's  intellectual 
fountain;  the  church  gatherings  no  longer  satisfy  popular 
demands  for  social  intercourse,  and  allegiance  to  the  church 
is  no  longer  the  indispensable  badge  of  respectability  and  the 
gauge  of  social  credit. 

Seen  objectively,  the  situation  in  many  communities 
presents  the  spectacle  of  the  minister  pathetically  struggling 


8  THE  PROBLEM  OF  ADJUSTMENT 

to  secure  influence  in  community  affairs,  a  small  group 
endeavoring,  by  increasing  sacrifice  and  effort,  to  secure 
financial  support,  tlie  community  growing  more  and  more 
indifferent,  the  services  of  worship  attended  by  decreasing 
numbers.  We  are  assured  that  the  situation  is  the  same 
everywhere.*  Neither  the  churches  that  represent  religions 
of  authority  nor  those  that  express  the  authority  of  re- 
ligion have  the  place  in  the  affairs  of  society  that  once 
they  held.  But  do  the  empty  pews  or  the  losses  in  direct 
political  influence  tell  all  the  story?  Are  they  sufficient 
tests?  Applied  to  the  church  of  a  century  ago  they  would 
spell  failure.  To-day  they  indicate  change,  change  in  modes 
of  influence  and  power,  changes  in  methods  of  accomplish- 
ing the  same  purposes.  They  are  symptomatic  of  adjust- 
ment. They  may  mark  the  failure  of  old  ways;  they  in- 
dicate the  need  for  new  ways.  Often  the  situation  rises 
out  of  the  attempt  to  put  the  new  wine  of  this  day's  life 
and  action  into  yesterday's  bottles. 

If  the  conditions  briefly  characterized  above  indicate 
failure  in  perfecting  adjustments,  there  are  no  less  striking 
evidences  of  serious  efforts  to  effect  proper  relationships. 
Consider  the  changes  in  church  edifices  from  the  single  room 
for  worship  to  the  extensive  plant  providing  for  classes, 
clubs,  social  life,  lectures,  recreation,  consultation,  and 
many  forms  of  activity.  Consider  the  changed  curricula 
of  theological  seminaries  as  indicating  changes  in  the  min- 
ister's professional  work.  Consider  the  practical  effects  of 
the  movement  for  social  service,  f    Let  the  critic  study  the 

*  On  the  situation  in  England,  see  chap.  II,  The  Church  and  The  New 
Age,  H.  Carter,  1912. 

t  Consult  A  Year  Book  of  the  Church  and  Social  Service,  Harry  F. 
Ward,  published  by  Methodist  Book  Concern. 


LOCAL  adjust:ments  9 

organized  movement  for  community  betterment  in  rm*al  dis- 
tricts.* Think  of  what  a  really  modern  chm-ch  means  to  a 
boy  or  a  girl,  and  compare  it  with  what  your  church  meant 
to  you  in  boyhood.  Think  of  new  methods  in  Sunday- 
schools,  new  educational  buildings,  curricula,  standards, 
and  trained  workers.  Consider  the  special  organizations 
for  boys  and  girls.  Think  of  the  work  of  a  modern  church 
in  relation  to  recreation  as  contrasted  with  its  almost  single 
duty  as  a  messenger  of  warning  or  denunciation  a  generation 
ago.  Consider  the  changes  in  ideals  and  methods  as  to 
foreign  missions.  These  are  but  a  few  of  the  many  changes 
in  the  past  few  decades.  They  are  mentioned  not  as  an 
inventory  of  successes,  but  as  indications  of  endeavors  to 
perfect  adjustments.  They  are  s;vTnptoms,  precisely  as 
significant  as  the  failures  and  difficulties  are. 

LOCAL  ADJUSTMENTS 

One  other  complicating  aspect  of  the  problem  of  the 
present-day  church  must  not  be  overlooked.  Not  only  is 
the  church  as  a  whole  in  the  stress  of  adjustment  to  rapidly 
changing  social  conditions,  but  each  church  is  immediately 
concerned  with  adjustments  to  its  own  local  situation. 
This  generation  has  come  to  see  how  different  is  the  ministry 
of  the  church  in  the  city  from  that  of  the  one  in  the  open 
country,  how  the  suburban  type  must  differ  from  the  down- 
town type,  and  how  there  may  be  as  many  different  forms  of 
ministry  as  there  are  t^^es  of  communities.  It  appears 
that  there  can  be  no  uniform  t}i)e  even  in  a  single  commu- 

*  For  example,  see  the  numerous  reports  published  by  the  Presby- 
terian Board  of  Home  Missions;  the  list  will  be  sent  on  application 
to  the  Board  at  156  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City.  See  also  the  pub- 
lications of  the  Missionary  Education  Movement. 


10  THE  PROBLEM  OF  ADJUSTMENT 

nion.  Just  what  any  church  will  do  will  be  determined,  first, 
by  the  general  programme  and  purpose  of  all  churches,  and, 
secondly,  by  what  needs  to  be  done  in  that  particular  com- 
munity. Manifestly  there  exist  remote  and  rural  commu- 
nities in  which  the  church  will  conduct  almost  every  form  of 
social  enterprise,  or,  at  least,  it  will  cause  them  to  be  con- 
ducted. There  are  also  parts  of  cities  where  the  services 
of  the  church  will  be  almost  as  varied  as  the  needs  of  the 
community.  There  are  other  parts  of  the  city  where  the 
church,  surrounded  by  many  efficient  agencies,  will  con- 
centrate on  a  few  forms  of  service.  The  wide  varieties  in 
local  situations  make  this  problem  exceedingly  intricate. 
The  current  attempts  at  its  solution  often  confuse  persons  of 
limited  observation.  They  criticise  the  city  church  because 
it  is  unlike  the  country  church  from  which  they  came.  If  we 
are  looking  for  uniformity  we  are  sure  to  be  disappointed  in 
the  modern  church  which  seeks  efficiency. 

If  our  purpose  were  that  of  diagnosing  the  entire  situation 
as  to  the  churches,  it  would  be  necessary  to  point  out  in 
particular  the  far-reaching  effects  of  economic  changes. 
But,  at  least,  we  can  keep  in  mind  the  general  effects  by 
considering  the  difference  between  the  weekly  programme, 
or  routine,  of  the  church-member  to-day  and  the  church- 
member  of  fifty  years  ago.  The  latter  was  a  country — 
or  village — dweller  with  much  leisure;  the  former  is  under 
the  pressure  of  the  crowded  city,  under  the  strain  of  a  packed 
programme.  When  Sunday  comes,  the  modern  man  has 
endured  about  all  of  the  intellectual  strain  he  can  stand.  He 
has  been  in  a  crowd  too  long.  He  needs  and  longs  for  rest, 
for  quiet,  and,  perhaps,  for  solitude.  Even  though  we 
recognize  the  fallacy  of  the  common  argument  for  the  golf 


COMPETITION  AND  DUPLICATION  11 

course  as  against  the  church,  we  must  acknowledge  that 
there  are  very  large  numbers  who  must  fight  inclination, 
ignore  pressing  needs,  and  incur  greater  nervous  strain  every 
time  they  go  to  churcli. 

COMPETITION  AND  DUPLICATION 

Frequently  our  modern  efforts  to  make  adjustments  to 
the  life  of  to-day  seem  to  increase  our  difficulties  by  bring- 
ing the  church  into  competition  with  other  social  agencies. 
Some  duplications  of  activities  are  unavoidable;  some  al- 
ways will  exist;  some  are  only  a  part  of  the  process  of  dis- 
covering duties,  but  others  are  without  excuse.  In  the 
stress  of  social  adjustment  the  church  will  have  to  struggle 
for  her  field;  it  will  not  be  found  or  held  without  effort. 
The  church  is  not  the  only  institution  tending  to  pre-empt 
more  than  its  share.  But  it  must  be  confessed  that  not  all 
the  activities  of  the  churches  have  been  designed  as  serious 
attempts  at  social  harmony  and  efficiency. 

Many  churches  are  in  serious  and  often  bitter  competition 
with  other  social  institutions.  Some,  as  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  and  certain  synods  of  the  Lutheran  Churches, 
attempt  the  work  of  public  schools,  while  many  of  all  faiths 
conduct  kindergartens  during  the  week-days.  A  large  num- 
ber have  definite  programmes,  with  elaborate  plants,  for 
relief  and  philanthropic  work,  covering  the  ground  of  charity 
associations,  settlements,  hospitals,  dispensaries,  play- 
grounds, friendly  benefit  societies,  and  other  similar  agencies. 
Still  others  appear  to  be  in  active  competition  with  the 
caterers  to  public  amusement,  their  services  are  often  de- 
graded to  the  level  of  a  vaudeville  performance  in  the  vain 
hope  of  attracting  the  passing  crowd.    Sometimes  one  hears 


12  THE  PROBLEM  OF  ADJUSTMENT 

a  sermon  by  a  popular  preacher  which  scarcely  differs  at 
all  from  the  monologue  of  the  professional  comedian. 
Others  conduct  week-day  programmes  of  popular  enter- 
tainments, dramatics,  etc.,  and  provide  elaborate  gymna- 
siums, playgrounds,  restaurants,  club-rooms.  Others  spend 
energy  in  organizing  forms  of  secret  societies  and  fraternal 
lodges.  Indeed,  scarcely  any  type  of  interest  develops  in 
modern  life  but  that  some  church  will  adopt  at  least  its 
mechanism  in  the  hope  that  its  attractive  power  will  be 
maintained  when  transferred  to  the  church.  Here  often 
lies  the  raison  d'etre  of  many  of  these  activities;  they  are 
adopted  as  magnets,  not  as  forms  of  ministry.  A  church 
establishes  a  gymnasium  not  with  the  intent  of  benefiting 
boys  so  much  as  with  the  hope  of  "getting  hold  of  the 
boys."  The  point  of  the  criticism  is  not  that  these  enter- 
prises are  improper  for  churches,  but  that  they  do  not  rise 
out  of  a  clearly  apprehended  programme;  they  are  ex- 
traneous and  sporadic  efforts  to  create  interest,  to  get  into 
the  game  that  seems  to  go  on  so  successfully  outside  the 
churches. 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  SPECIALIZATION 

Frequently  there  are  historic  causes  for  the  duplication  of 
activities  and  the  apparent  overlapping  of  fields.  Many  of 
the  most  useful  institutions  of  modern  life  have  developed 
from  the  forms  of  service  which  the  church  once  rendered. 
The  public  schools  are  the  development  of  the  teaching 
activities  of  the  churches;  settlements  and  charity  organiza- 
tions have  grown  out  of  the  direct  ministry  of  the  church 
for  the  poor  and  the  needy;  even  popular  amusements 
may  be  traced  to  the  same  sources,  the  miracle-plays,  the 


THE  TESTING  TIME  13 

customs  of  village  dances  on  the  open  space  before  the 
churches,  of  games  and  recreations  in  the  church  glebe,  and, 
later,  the  influence  of  the  "socials"  organized  by  the 
churches.  The  splendid  activities  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Associations  and  the  Young  Women's  Christian 
Associations  are  the  fruitage  of  the  sincere  efforts  of  churches 
to  meet  the  physical,  mental,  and  spiritual  needs  of  youth. 
We  can  never  afford  to  lose  sight  of  the  fact  which  history 
so  patently  records  that  the  church  has  been  the  mother  of 
almost  all  those  forms  of  social  service  with  which  her  work 
is  to-day  so  often  unfavorably  contrasted. 

But  it  is  a  part  of  the  function  of  all  worthy  institutions 
to  give  birth  to  agencies  which  will  ultimately  deprive  them 
of  phases  of  tlieir  earlier  activities.  It  is  an  evidence  of 
efficiency  when  an  institution  conducts  so  well  one  form  of 
service  that  part  of  its  organization  develops  into  self- 
support  and  autonomy.  The  church  ought  not  to  talk 
about  competition  with  social  settlements,  or  with  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.;  it  ought  rather  to  be  grateful  that  it  has  chil- 
dren grown  to  such  stature  and  so  efficient  as  to  bring  high 
credit  on  their  parentage.  However,  the  pertinent  ques- 
tion arises.  When  the  offspring  take  over  all  the  duties  and 
divide  all  the  field  among  themselves,  what  remains  to  the 
parent  institution?  What,  to-day,  is  the  place  of  the 
church,  in  the  social  order  ? 

THE  TESTING  TIME 

Have  we  come  to  a  time  when,  because  the  earlier  activi- 
ties of  the  churches  are  now  more  efficiently  carried  on  by 
other  agencies,  the  church  can  pass  properly  out  of  existence, 
a  rich  historic  memory,  but  no  more  ?    That  is  much  more 


14  THE  PROBLEM  OF  x\DJUSTMENT 

than  a  philosophical  question.  Many  return  an  affirmative 
answer.  Many  thousands,  who  have  never  given  the  mat- 
ter any  historical  study,  assert  most  emphatically  that  the 
"church  has  outworn  its  time  of  service,"  "outgrown  its 
usefulness,"  "is  a  vestige  only  of  the  past."  These  all  lis- 
ten with  indifference  to  the  call  of  the  churches;  they  meet 
its  appeals  for  support  with  the  charge  of  inefficiency  and 
economic  waste.  Some  are  simply  guilty  of  the  very  bigotry 
they  usually  denounce;  but  besides  these  there  are  serious- 
minded  persons  who  are  asking  what  right  the  churches 
have  to  the  investment  which  society  is  asked  to  make  in 
them. 

In  an  increasing  degree  the  economic  test  will  be  ap- 
plied. The  churches  will  be  judged  by  the  economic  return 
they  make  to  society  for  the  investment  made  in  them.  The 
test  is  neither  unfair  nor  illogical.  Here  is  an  institution 
which  holds  immensely  valuable  real  estate,  some  of  the 
best  sites  in  a  city,  which  asks  for  support  in  large  sums, 
which  withdraws  from  other  occupations  many  professional 
workers  and  makes  large  drafts  on  the  energies  of  many 
thousands  of  persons.  With  all  this  financial,  personal,  and 
temporal  investment,  what  are  the  returns?  On  what 
grounds  do  we  justify  the  investment?  Is  it  simply  in 
order  that  groups  of  people  here  and  there  shall  continue 
to  do  in  an  amateur  manner  that  which  other  agencies  are 
doing  with  professional  expertness?  Is  all  this  cost  of  life 
only  that  churches  shall  be  supported  to  play  at  instruction, 
relief,  social  amusement,  and  recreation?  Some  aim,  dis- 
tinct, clearly  apprehended,  and  commanding,  will  need  to 
emerge,  or  society  will  not  long  justify  the  investment  it  is 
asked  to  make. 


THE  TESTING  TIME  15 

All  this  does  not  mean  that  we  must  immediately  give  up 
the  old  ship,  saying  that  her  cargo  has  been  transferred  to  a 
flotilla  of  new  craft.  But  it  does  mean  that  there  must  be  a 
square  facing  of  the  question  as  to  the  precise  function  of 
the  church  in  our  day.  She  must  cease  to  carry  on  tradi- 
tional activities  without  regard  to  whether  they  are  better 
done  elsewhere  or  are  needed  at  all;  she  must  cease  the 
attempt  at  winning  popular  support  by  a  round  of  factitious 
activities;  she  must  cease  the  attempt  to  manufacture  con- 
vincing programmes  without  consideration  of  the  value  of 
the  performances. 

The  Jack  of  all  trades  is  out  of  date.  The  barber  who 
-was  also  surgeon,  physician,  chiropodist,  and  nurse  is  no 
more.  The  teacher  who  taught  all  subjects  now  teaches 
none.  The  general  merchant  remains  only  in  remote  dis- 
tricts. Life  is  specialized.  There  is  no  longer  need  for 
the  church  to  generalize  in  all  good  things,  for  there  are 
other  agencies  and  institutions  much  more  efficient  in  some 
good  things.  She  must  specialize,  must  deliberately  dis- 
cover what  is  her  specialty  and  then  stick  to  it. 

REFERENCES 

Carter,  H.,  The  Church  mid  the  New  Age  (Hodder  &  Stoughton,  1912). 
Strayer,  p.  M.,  The  ReconMrudion  of  the  Church  (Macmillan,  1915). 
Crooker,  J.  H.,  The  Church  of  Tomorrow  (Pilgi'im  Press,  1911). 
Mathews,  S.,  The  Church  and  the  Changing  Order  (Macmillan,  1907). 


CHAPTER  II 
WHAT  IS  THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH? 

Efficiency  depends  on  the  answer.  The  grave  criticism 
of  the  church  is  not  that  she  is  doing  so  httle,  but  that  she 
is  trying  to  do  so  many  things,  and  doing  few  or  none  of 
them  well.  Perhaps  it  would  be  more  exact  to  say  that  the 
church  is  attempting  more  duties  than  any  single  institu- 
tion can  discharge  and  often  without  a  clear  understanding 
of  why  many  of  them  should  be  attempted.  She  lacks  the 
clear  consciousness  of  field  and  task  which  would  indicate 
duties  exactly. 

We  cannot  answer  the  question  as  to  function  until  we 
know  the  nature  of  a  church.  What  is  a  church,  not  only 
historically  but  objectively  as  we  see  it  to-day?  One  does 
not  need  to  depend  wholly  on  the  genesis  and  history  of  the 
church  in  order  to  determine  its  task  in  the  life  of  to-day. 
It  may  well  be  that  the  church  of  the  first  century  had  a 
function  quite  different  from  that  of  the  modern  church. 
The  church  at  Ephesus,  partially  isolated,  facing  a  heathen 
world  ignorant  of  its  philosophy  and  faith,  would  take  up 
tasks  wholly  different  from  those  facing  the  rich,  powerful 
church  in  New  York  or  London.  The  church  in  Foochow 
would  have  waiting  opportunities  different  from  either 
Ephesus  or  London.  The  church  in  Hornby,  N.  Y.,  will 
face  rural  situations  differing  widely  from  those  of  the  scat- 
tered congregations  of  the  first  century.  But,  after  all, 
there  is  an  unvarying  underlying  principle  for  all,  and  all 
have    certain    common    characteristics.    No   matter   how 

16 


THE  PERSONAL  CLEW  17 

churches  may  differ,  each  one  is  a  group  of  people  agreed 
on  placing  the  religious  values  fii'st  in  life.*  Wherever  a 
church  may  be,  whatever  its  policy  and  its  creed,  it  is  a 
society  united  by  the  concept  of  the  Godlike  possibilities  of 
man. ^  A  church  '*"  •>  f^crouii  r^  pp.rpr/i;s  ass-dated  and  co- 

:"  '    ,   '     ;.^ie  s.  -v.*  v.'!  -^r: oi  sp/ntual,  values.    This 

does  not  precisely  define  a  Christian  Church;  it  is  only  a 
statement  of  its  central  ideal  in  simple,  inclusive  terms. 

Now  a  church  exists,  not  because  there  are  programmes 
for  its  social  activity,  but,  first  of  all,  because  people  always 
will  get  together.  The  social  instinct  polarizes  human  be- 
ings, and  it  is  most  likely  to  draw  them  about  the  poles  of 
their  ideals.  Given  a  sufficiently  attractive  personal  and 
social  ideal,  the  get-together  instinct,  or  habit,  will  bring 
people  around  the  ideal.  That  is  what  happens  whenever 
a  church  is  formed.  In  the  Christian  religion  the  ideals 
are  essentially  personal  and  social;  the  church  is  a  group  of 
persons  polarized  at  the  personal  ideal  of  Jesus  and  the 
social  ideals  he  taught.  The  most  satisf^ang  thing  that  can 
happen  to  any  of  us  is  to  come  along  with  others  to  a  com- 
mon consciousness  of  such  commanding,  elevating  ideals. 
This  is  the  basic  justification  of  a  church.  The  social  unity 
of  the  Christian  Church  in  the  consciousness  of  the  leader- 
ship of  Christ  and  the  endeavor  to  realize  his  character 
and  ideal  are  values  immeasurable  and  essential  to  all 
permanent  human  progress. 

THE  PERSONAL  CLEW 

A  church  consists  of  persons;    its  processes  deal  with 
persons;   its  product  is  personal.     It  is  a  social  institution 
*  See  George  A.  Coe  in  Psychology  of  Religion,  chap.  VIII. 


18    THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH 

because  it  is  a  personal  institution  in  the  plural,  and  wher- 
ever you  have  real  personality  in  the  plural  you  have  so- 
ciety. In  the  last  analysis,  when  we  have  worked  down 
through  ritual,  ordinances,  services,  creeds,  and  forms  of 
activity,  when  we  can  see  these  as  means  and  processes,  the 
end  and  the  product  clearly  appear  as  people.  All  seek  a 
personal  and,  therefore,  a  social  product. 

The  church  exists  to  deal  with  persons,  as  rehgious  per- 
sons, to  the  end  that  they  may  find  in  themselves,  and  as  a 
social  whole,  fulness  of  life;  as  one  has  said,  that  men  might 
become  like  God  and  this  earth  like  heaven;  as  the  apostles 
put  it,  that  men  might  be  saved,  that  the  world  might  be 
saved;  and  as  Jesus  put  it,  that  men  might  have  life  and 
that  they  might  have  it  more  abundantly.  Here  is  the 
ultimate  purpose  of  the  church:  Godlike  men  and  women 
in  a  world  of  God's  will.  Here  is  the  programme  of  the 
church:  To  reach  all  men  in  all  their  lives  to  the  end 
that  this  purpose  may  be  realized.  Here  is  the  process  of 
the  church  with  men :  Developing  in  them  this  Godlike  life 
according  to  the  laws  of  that  life. 

Such  a  statement  as  this  may  seem  to  be  very  elementary, 
yet  in  how  many  instances  would  the  application  of  the 
principle — that  the  church  exists  for  the  sake  of  people — 
work  a  complete  revolution  in  church  methods !  The  prin- 
ciple in  its  simplicity  needs  to  be  stated  frequently.  By 
it  we  may  test  every  enterprise  and  activity  in  the  church. 
It  puts  life  at  the  centre.  It  sets  in  present-da}^  terms 
Jesus'  teaching  on  the  primary  place  of  personal  values. 
It  helps  to  clarify  the  message  of  the  church  on  modern 
world-problems  by  the  example  of  an  institution  definitely 
and  consciously  devoted  to  the  democratic  task  of  develop- 


THE  PERSONAL  CLEW  19 

ing  people.  It  thus  not  only  insists  that  a  man  is  worth 
more  than  a  sheep,  but  that  he  is  worth  more  than  constitu- 
tions and  institutions. 

The  importance  of  such  simple  considerations  appears 
when  we  reaHze  that  a  clear  view  of  the  task  is  necessary 
in  order  to  discover  the  function  of  the  church.  To  appre- 
hend the  function  and  to  make  it  clear  to  men  will  settle  such 
outstanding  questions  as  whether  the  church  has  a  justifiable 
place  in  the  modern  world,  and  whether  there  remains  to 
the  church  a  clear,  comprehensible,  practical  task  in  the  life 
of  to-day. 

But  does  loyalty  to  a  personal,  religious  ideal  demand 
the  intricate  organization  and  elaborate  mechanization  of 
the  churches  of  to-day?  A  partial  answer  to  the  question 
is  that  loyalty  to  such  a  personal  ideal  demands  efficient, 
persistent  endeavor  to  secure  its  commanding  place  in  all 
lives  and  through  all  social  relations.  The  church  is  a 
group  of  persons  associated  at  the  point  of  a  personal  ideal 
so  lofty  in  character  as  to  compel  them  to  make  it  known 
to  all,  equally  potent  to  all,  and  regnant  through  all  human 
affairs.  This  group  accepts  the  character  and  authority 
of  their  leader;  the  ideal  commands  their  lives.  Loyalty 
means  not  simply  admiration,  nor  imitation,  it  means  that 
which  is  the  essential  spirit  of  the  Christian  Church,  the 
dominating  desire,  the  compelling  passion  that  all  men 
shall  know  this  ideal,  shall  become  like  their  leader,  and 
shall  rejoice  to  do  his  will.  So  this  little  social  group, 
gathered  about  an  ideal,  becomes  a  body  with  a  propaganda: 
to  lead  all  men  to  the  likeness  of  their  leader,  to  make  all 
men  in  character  like  him  and  to  make  this  world  the  place 
where  his  wUI  is  done. 


20    THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH 

It  is  the  only  institution  which  includes  all  the  members 
of  the  social  group  in  this  one  spiritual  purpose.  It  is  the 
only  voluntary  agency  with  the  specific  purpose  of  inter- 
preting life  as  spiritual  growth.*  It  is  the  only  one  which 
regards  persons  primarily  as  religious  beings.  It  is  the  only 
one  which,  dealing  with  both  men  and  women,  with  young 
and  old,  definitely  sets  character  first  and  deliberately 
seeks  to  realize  in  them  the  highest  known  ideal  of  char- 
acter. It  is  the  only  complete  social  group  with  the  function 
of  developing  human  character  toward  divine  perfection. 

COMPLICATING  FACTORS 

If  the  task  of  the  church  is  so  simple,  clear,  and  definite, 
how  does  it  happen  that  she  has  so  often  lost  sight  of  it? 
Why  have  so  many  other  aims  become  dominant  at  various 
times  ?  Why  is  the  picture  of  the  work  of  the  church  vague 
and  confused  in  the  minds  of  so  many  of  her  people  ?  It  is 
in  part  because,  while  the  personal  aim  is  very  simple,  the 
method  of  realizing  it  is  always  exceedingly  complex.  In 
the  past,  as  the  church  pursued  her  task,  she  found  that  the 
growth  of  character  was  a  multiplex  process.  Not  only  did 
it  have  to  do  with  ideals  presented  through  teaching,  preach- 
ing, and  worship,  but  it  depended  on  health,  physical  en- 
vironment, and  forms  of  activity.  The  growth  of  character 
was  the  growth  of  the  whole  of  personality.     Its  programme 

*  One  wonders  whether  to  add:  "except  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association,  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Association,  and,  perhaps, 
other  similar  organizations."  But  the  fact  is  we  cannot  think  of  them 
apart  from  the  churches.  They  would  scarcely  claim  a  complete  in- 
stitutional independence.  Moreover,  they  deal  only  with  certain 
groups.  A  good  case  may  be  made  for  the  family  as  ideally  an  institu- 
tion primarily  for  religious  purposes ;  but  society  is  not  generally  con- 
scious of  such  an  interpretation. 


THE  MENACE  OF  MACHINERY  21 

demanded  the  domination  of  all  social  relations  by  the 
religious  ideal.  General  education^  hospitals,  social  relief, 
civic  improvement,  all  grew  out  of  the  endeavor  of  the 
church  to  fm-nish  a  soil  in  which  lives  might  grow  up  and 
move  forward.  The  stimuli  of  the  Godward  and  Godlike 
life  came  out  of  the  entire  environment. 

Character  is  growing  all  the  time.  ^Vhat  a  person  will 
be  is  being  determined  on  the  street  as  well  as  in  the  church. 
Every-day  environment  may  be  just  as  potent  as  Sunday 
environment.  The  religious  purpose  of  the  church  cannot 
be  accomplished  by  dealing  with  souls  which  come  out  of 
seclusion  only  for  sacred  services.  These  souls  are  in  the 
world.  The  world-conditions  must  be  made  to  co-operate 
with  the  work  of  the  church.  To  carry  forward  her  pro- 
gramme the  church  must  cause  conditions  to  prevail  in 
society  which  are  favorable  to  spiritual  ends. 

When  the  churches  began  relief  work  they  took  up  the 
neglected  task  of  laying  sound  physical  foundations  for  a 
good  Hfe.  When  the  modern  church  engages  in  social  re- 
form her  aim,  ideally,  is  the  control  of  the  conditions  which 
help  to  determine  character.  So  deeply  is  the  life  of  the 
spiritual  being  set  in  the  soil  of  every-day  living  that  he 
cannot  even  will  his  growth  toward  high  ideals  save  as  that 
soil  helps  this  growth. 

,  THE  MENACE  OF  MACHINERY 

WTiy  have  we  so  often  lost  sight  of  the  commanding  and 
inspiring  aim  of  personal  and  social  development?  Is  it 
not  largely  because  of  the  complexity  of  the  process  ?  This 
is  a  large  programme,  to  control  social  life  and  make  it  favor- 
able to  spiritual  ends.    The  effort  to  develop  the  necessary 


22    THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH 

machinery  and  to  secure  sufficient  resources  absorbed  the 
energies  of  leaders.  Attention  was  concentrated  on  the 
means.  The  church  became  less  an  instrument  of  ministry 
and  more  an  institution  to  be  ministered  to,  and  the  im- 
portant issue  then  became  that  of  preserving  the  church, 
and  thus  its  ministry  to  society  was  converted  into  an  effort 
to  maintain  the  agency.  In  the  same  manner  men  often 
became  more  anxious  about  the  doctrine  than  about  its 
effect  on  character.  They  substituted  the  means  for  the 
end,  the  tools  for  the  product.  They  so  sedulously  guarded 
the  tools,  that  is,  the  doctrines,  creed,  organization,  and 
ordinances,  that  they  forgot  altogether  that  these  only 
had  value  as  they  served  the  high  purposes  of  making  men 
more  like  the  ideal  One,  and  society  more  like  that  which 
he  pictured.  Indeed,  the  tools  and  means  have  vitality 
only  as  long  as  they  serve  worthy  and  adequate  purposes. 

It  is  always  easy  for  the  machine,  being  the  object  of  im- 
mediate attention,  to  seem  to  be  of  greater  importance  than 
the  product.  This  is  not  strange,  for  the  institution,  the 
machine,  is  so  obvious,  so  necessary,  and  so  engrossing.  It 
is  a  definite  thing  for  which  one  can  work.  But  it  becomes 
a  dangerous  thing  when  it  becomes  an  end  in  itself.  We 
have  constantly  to  face  the  peril  of  forgetting  the  great 
end  in  the  lives  of  persons.  Organization,  property,  and 
officials  must  be  held  subservient  to  the  interests  of  the 
people  who  are  to  be  saved.  Few  dangers  are  more  insidious 
than  that  we  shall  think  that  the  churches  exist  for  the 
sake  of  preaching,  music,  forms  of  worship,  statements  of 
belief,  t;y'pes  of  service,  membership  rolls,  magnificent  build- 
ings. The  personal  aim  must  dominate  and  we  must 
insist  that  all  these  are  but  tools  and  processes  for  specific 


THE  MENACE  OF  MACHINERY  23 

personal  ends,  valuable  only  as  they  minister  to  these  ends. 
The  church  does  not  exist  in  order  to  preach  the  gospel, 
but  the  church  preaches  the  gospel  in  order  that  men  may 
exist  as  religious  beings,  that  they  may  know  their  heavenly 
Father,  love  him,  and  be  like  him. 

Facing  the  problem  of  maintaining  the  means  of  adjust- 
ing social  conditions  to  spiritual  ends,  the  church  must  not 
forget  that  the  personal  programme  is  the  most  effective 
one.  People  determine  conditions  even  more  than  conditions 
determine  people.  Social  conditions,  ultimately,  are  not 
determined  by  compulsion,  legislation,  or  regulation;  they 
are  determined  by  the  ideals  and  wills  of  men  and  women. 
The  kingdom  of  heaven  rises  within.  As  a  wise  teacher  said: 
"The  soul  of  all  improvement  is  the  improvement  of  the 
soul."  Loyalty  to  the  task  of  leading  lives  into  spiritual  ful- 
ness is  the  way  out  of  the  difficulty  for  the  church.  Then 
these  lives,  as  they  develop,  reach  out  and  dominate  social 
conditions;  they  will  a  right  world.  Therefore,  the  church 
needs  often  to  emphasize  the  personal  and  spiritual  aim.  In 
a  world  where  the  material  and  external  so  strongly  appeal 
she  must  insist  on  the  eternal,  the  personal.  Regardless  of 
other  agencies,  her  prime  and  directing  duty  lies  with  people 
as  people. 

The  special  need  of  the  church  at  this  moment  Is  an 
examination  of  her  activities,  an  evaluation  of  them  by  this 
test.  Do  they  serve  the  function  of  the  church  in  the  direct 
development  of  Christian  character  and  the  organization  of 
a  society  of  good-will?  If  the  church  exists  to  develop 
Christian  character  and  to  cause  Christian  conditions  to 
prevail  in  human  society,  how  far  is  her  machinery  adapted 
to  that  end,  and  what  are  the  best  methods  to  follow? 


24    THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH 

There  exists  already  a  test  of  all  her  work — the  kind  of  peo- 
ple that  she  gives  to  society. 

THE  SOCIAL  NECESSITY 

Another  important  question  remains  to  be  asked,  Can 
the  work  of  spiritual  development  be  most  efficiently  main- 
tained at  present  by  this  institution,  or  is  it  being  carried  on 
better  by  others  ? 

That  question  cannot  be  answered  empirically.  It  rests 
on  another  and  very  fundamental  one,  What  are  the  methods 
by  which  the  aim  of  the  church  is  to  be  realized?  In  the 
flood  of  light  which  modern  science  begins  to  throw  on  the 
processes  of  human  development,  what  do  we  find  to  be 
the  means  by  which  personality  develops,  character  grows, 
and  the  social  whole  is  brought  along  the  way  to  its  spiritual 
ideal?  When  we  have  discovered  these  laws  we  shall  be 
able  to  determine  the  type  of  social  institution  best  fitted  to 
work  under  them.  Of  this  we  can  be  certain:  it  will  be  a 
social  institution,  a  group  of  persons,  and  it  will  be  controlled 
by  great  and  compelling  spiritual  ideals.  Whether  it  be 
new  or  old  it  will  have  the  organic  elements  which  char- 
acterize the  churches  to-day.  Even  if  the  churches  as  now 
constituted  should  cease  to  exist,  other  social  organizations 
would  spring  into  existence  to  carry  on  this  work  and  in 
all  essentials  they  would  find  themselves  very  soon  so  like 
the  churches  as  not  to  be  distinguishable  from  them.  In 
many  incidental  and  external  features  they  would  differ, 
but  they  would  still  be  groups  gathered  about  commanding 
personal  ideals.  They  would  still  be  devoted  to  spiritual 
ends.  They  would  still  find  it  possible  to  do  their  work 
only  by  methods  indicated  by  the  laws  of  lives.    They  would 


PRACTICAL  PLACE  25 

still  find  their  work  possible  only  under  the  motive  of  a 
self -giving  passion  for  lives. 

Perhaps  it  were  well  to  stop  and  ask  whether  the  func- 
tion of  the  development  of  religious  character  is  so  clear, 
so  outstanding,  so  differentiated,  and  so  simple  as  to  con- 
stitute a  sufficient  reason  for  the  existence  of  this  special  insti- 
tution ?  The  answer  would  be  that  whether  or  not  there  is 
^ny  general  appreciation  of  the  need  of  special  training  in 
religious  character  the  obligation  remains  just  as  strong  on 
all  who  have  seen  its  need  and  caught  its  glory.  But  al- 
ready modern  society  does  recognize  the  fundamental  place 
of  the  personal  equation;  it  is  consciously  built  on  the  basis 
of  character  and  increasingly  it  tends  to  interpret  life  in 
the  religious  terms  of  service  and  sacrifice,  and  consequently, 
society  will  justify  tlie  work  of  the  churches. 

PRACTICAL  PLACE 

The  function  of  the  church  is  just  as  clear  as  the  function 
of  a  system  of  transportation,  just  as  definite  as  the  function 
of  a  public  school,  just  as  real  as  the  function  of  a  manu- 
facturing plant,  and,  at  least,  fully  as  necessary  as  any. 
The  so-called  practical  man  may  object,  saying  that  you  can 
weigh,  count,  and  measure  the  goods  with  which  the  factory 
deals  while  the  spiritual  aims  of  the  church  are  altogether 
v^ague  and  elusive.  The  man  who  talks  in  that  strain  should 
know  that  even  in  the  manufacture  of  the  most  prosaic 
goods  there  enter  elements  that  cannot  be  weighed  or 
counted,  that  cannot  even  be  bought  or  sold.  He  knows 
that  the  character  and  ambitions  of  workmen,  the  tempera- 
ments of  salesmen,  the  psychology  of  advertising,  the  general 
tone  of  business  confidence,  and  the  factor  of  business  faith 


28    THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  CHURCH 

and  credibility  all  enter  into  the  making  and  marketing  of 
his  goods.  If  he  does  not  think  often  of  the  values  of  these 
factors  he  is  not  an  efficient  manufacturer.  If  he  knows 
nothing  of  them  he  is  blind  to  the  largest  facts  in  life.  He  is 
a  man  working  with  one  eye,  the  thing-seeing  eye,  and  with- 
out the  eye  that  sees  thought,  emotions,  judgments,  char- 
acter, and  will. 

We  have  to  recognize  the  existence  of  the  one-eyed  man, 
but  we  confess  to  a  conviction  that  the  affliction  is  voluntary, 
though  of  so  long  standing  as  to  seem  incurable.  All  spiri- 
tual, idealistic  movements  appear  to  this  man  to  offer  an 
easy  excuse  when  he  is  urged  to  support  them;  he  says  they 
are  vague  and  visionary.  If  he  could  see  their  value  he 
would  support  them,  and  therefore  he  cannot  see  their 
value. 

Is  it  not  possible,  with  these  general  considerations  of 
the  specific  task  of  the  church  to-day,  to  state  its  function 
in  precise  terms?  It  has  to  do  with  persons;  it  exists  to 
develop  them  toward  certain  personal  and  social  ideals. 
Its  functions,  therefore,  belong  in  the  same  group  with 
other  agencies  organized  for  the  direction  and  stimulation 
of  personal  development,  particularly  with  the  schools. 
In  other  words,  it  is  engaged  in  education,  in  developing 
lives.  TJie  social  function  of  the  church  is  that  of  education, 
and  particularly  moral  and  religious  education. 

Before  this  statement  of  function  can  be  accepted  fully 
it  may  be  necessary  to  see  just  what  the  modern  concept 
of  education  involves,  and,  also,  whether  it  really  includes 
and  properly  defines  the  specific  work  which  the  church  can 
undertake  in  the  life  of  to-day. 


REFERENCES  27 

REFERENCES 

Gladden,  Washington,   The   Church   and  Modem  Life  (Houghton 

Mifflin,  1908). 
Crooker,  J.  H.,  The  Church  of  Tomorrow,  chap.  II  (Pilgrim  Press,  1911). 
Strayer,  p.  M.,   The  Reconstruction  of  the  Church,  part  II,  chap.  I 

(Macmillan,  1915). 
Carter,  H.,  The  Church  and  the  New  Age,  sec.  3,  chap.  I  (Hodder  & 

Stoughton,  1912). 
VoTAW,  C.  W.,  and  St.  John,  Edward  P.,  Tlie  Church  in  Moral  and 

Religious  Education,  papers  in  Religious  Education,  December, 

1909,  pp.  410-423  (Rehgious  Education  Association). 


CHAPTER  III 
WHAT  DO  WE  MEAN  BY  EDUCATION? 

Having  defined  the  function  of  the  church  as  an  educa- 
tional one,  it  is  necessary  to  inquire,  What  do  we  mean  by 
education  ?  It  would  be  too  large  a  task  to  attempt  a  com- 
plete and  detailed  definition  of  the  meaning  of  education; 
but  it  is  necessary  to  agree  upon  a  general  working  state- 
ment. This  is  not  easy  because  the  meaning  is  changing 
and  enlarging  rapidly  to-day.  To  superficial  minds  educa- 
tion means  simply  the  process  of  instruction  carried  on  in 
schools  and  colleges.  To  such  persons  education  begins  at 
about  six  or  seven  years  of  age,  when  the  child  leaves  the 
shelter  of  the  family;  it  may  continue  up  to  fourteen,  eight- 
een, twenty-one,  or  twenty-two;  it  ends  when  he  leaves 
school.  Schooling  and  education  are  regarded  as  synony- 
mous. The  phrase  "finished  his  education"  is  still  current; 
it  simply  means  that  the  period  of  formal  schooling  is  ended. 
Unfortunately,  it  too  often  expresses  the  more  significant 
fact  that  directed  development  also  has  ceased.  We  need 
to  exercise  greater  precision  in  the  uses  of  "schooling"  and 
"education."  We  still  share  too  generally  the  opinion  of 
the  young  college  graduate  who,  on  receiving  his  bachelor's 
diploma,  is  said  to  have  telegraphed  to  his  parents  the  la- 
conic message :  "  Educated. ' ' 

A  PERSONAL  PROCESS 

Modern  education  is  a  personal  process.  In  its  essential 
sense  education  means  the  orderly  development  of  persons, 

28 


A  PERSONAL  PROCESS  29 

according  to  the  laws  of  personal  growth,  into  the  fulness 
of  their  powers,  into  the  efficiencies,  habits,  joys,  and  values 
of  their  lives  and  their  world.  It  is  based  upon  confidence 
that  human  beings  are  capable  of  dsvelopment.  It  holds 
that  the  process  of  personal  growth  is  not  completed  by 
nature,  but  must  be  stimulated  and  directed.  It  holds  that 
man's  growth  is  not  of  body  alone,  but  is  of  the  whole  person. 
It  believes  that  this  process  of  personal  development  is 
continuous  with  the  whole  of  life.  It  insists  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  society  to  direct  this  process  and  enrich  its  results. 

Modern  education  emphasizes  the  fact  that  it  deals  with 
persons,  not  with  minds  or  memories  or  hands  alone.  It 
seeks  to  develop  that  being  of  nerves,  feeling,  will,  judgment, 
and  conduct  called  a  person.  It  is  concerned  with  what  one 
has  illuminatingly  called  "behaving  organisms."  *  It  awak- 
ens, stimulates,  and  trains  the  powers  of  a  life.  It  directs 
abilities  and  develops  control  of  will  and  conduct.  Its 
methods  are  based  upon  our  knowledge  of  the  processes  of 
feeling,  knowing,  willing,  and  doing.  They  are  determined 
by  the  way  in  which  a  person  knows,  judges,  discerns, 
values,  feels  pleasures  and  pains,  determines  conduct,  and 
carries  feeling  and  will  into  aclioi].  Educatior  is  not  con- 
cerned alone  with  storing  the  memory  with  facts,  or  filling 
ih'i  mind  with  so-called  mental  equipment.  These  are 
but  means  like  food  i>r  tools.  It  i,^.  comnnied  with  securing 
the  development  of  persons  who  will  fit  into,  live  fully  with, 
and  serve,  their  world  of  persons. 

*  See  William  James  in  Talks  on  Psychology  and  Life's  Ideals,  chap. 
Ill  (Henry  Holt,  1906).  This  is  apparently  the  underlying  concept 
in  W.  C.  Bagley's  valuable  Educational  Values  (Macmillan,  1911). 
For  a  summary  of  many  definitions  of  education,  see  pp.  85-90  of 
Principles  of  Education,  C.  Ruedeger  (Houghton  Mifflin,  1910). 


30     WHAT  DO  WE  MEx\N  BY  EDUCATION? 

A  SOCIAL  PROCESS 

Thinking  thus  of  developing  persons,  modern  education 
becomes  essentially  a  social  yrocess,  for  the  persons  with 
whom  it  works  do  not  live  alone,  they  think  and  feel  and 
do  in  a  world  of  other  persons.  What  life  is  to  them  is  de- 
termined by  this  world  of  persons.  They,  too,  help  to  de- 
termine the  world  for  other  persons.*  Modern  education 
is  essentially  social  rather  than  individual.  It  is  not  think- 
ing merely  of  the  quiet,  dignified,  scholarly  gentleman  sit- 
ting in  refined  seclusion  in  his  book-lined  study.  It  has 
in  mind  our  whole  social  life.  The  growth  of  persons  is 
stimulated  and  modified  by  the  fact  that  we  tend  increasingly 
to  the  polarization  of  life.  We  live  in  crowds  and  have  to 
learn  not  alone  to  live  in  society,  but  to  live  the  life  of  the 
social  whole. 

MORAL  IMPLICATIONS 

Modern  education  is,  therefore,  because  it  deals  with 
beings  whose  very  life  is  social  and  \:ho  are  living  in  the 
social  whole,  essentially  a  moral  process.  This  is  involved 
in  any  clear  picture  of  education  as  the  development  of 
active  persons  learning  to  live  in  society,  for  morality  is 
wholly  a  matter  of  social  living.  Morality  begins  at  the 
point  at  which  my  neighbor's  life  touches  mine.  Out  of 
those  relations  rise  all  moral  situations.  Whatever  moral 
conduct  a  man  living  on  a  desert  island  might  have  would 
either  grow  out  of  past  social  relationships  or  be  directed 
to  possible  future  relationships.  This  would  be  true,  also, 
as  to  the  ideal  relationships  in  the  conscious  reality  and 

*  See  John  Dewey,  School  and  Society  (Univ.  of  Chicago  Press),  and 
particularly  W.  C.  Bagley  in  The  Educative  Process,  chap.  III. 


THE  WIDER  iVIORAL  UNIVERSE  31 

nearness  of  friends  who  continue  to  live  in  memory  and  ill 
spiritual  life  real  in  his  own  consciousness. 

When  we  talk  about  teaching  morality  in  schools  we 
usuail;y  mean  teaching  ethics,  that  is,  the  formalized  rules  of 
conduct  determined  by  the  accumulated  experience  of  a 
society.  But  morality  goes  much  deeper  than  that.  It  is 
more  than  the  rules  of  conduct.  It  underlies  all  rules  be- 
cause it  is  a  mode  or  manner  of  life  which  arises  out  of  the 
fact  that  we  live  in  social  relations  so  close  that  all  we  do 
becomes  a  part  of  other  lives.  My  life  is  set  in  the  midst 
of  many  other  lives  and  is  never  out  of  relation  to  them, 
so  that  what  life  means,  and  what  I  shall  be  and  do,  is 
determined  by  this  fact.  The  word  morality  has  its  root 
in  the  mores,  the  customs  of  the  tribe;  but  what  does  that 
mean  other  than  the  principles  which  have  developed  in  the 
making  of  the  tribe,  its  organization,  adjustment,  and  uni- 
fication into  a  social  whole  ?  Morality  is  the  art  of  living  as 
conditioned  by  the  fact  of  a  world  of  persons.  Moral  living 
is  simply  living  in  the  full  light  of  other  lives,  in  loyalty  to 
their  needs  and  rights.  If  education  is  social  it  must  be 
essentially  moral.  Moral  living  is  implied  in  all  learning; 
even  in  the  formal  curriculum  the  subjects  of  study  have 
value  and  meaning  because  of  their  power  in  guiding  con- 
duct under  social  relations.  We  cannot  avoid  the  moral 
interpretation  of  education. 

THE  WroER  aiORAL  UNIVERSE 

But  if  we  consider  further  the  moral  significance  and 
aim  of  education  it  will  open  up  yet  larger  meanings.  The 
social  relationships  of  a  person  reach  out  further  than 
friend  and  neighbor;    they  go  out  to  all  persons  who  can 


32     WHAT  DO  WE  MEAN  BY  EDUCATION? 

possibly  come  Into  the  realm  of  consciousness.  Our  neigh- 
boring must  go  out  as  far  as  thought  and  consciousness  can 
go.  It  evidently  has  no  geographical  bounds.  Neither  has 
it  any  physical  bounds.  The  memory  of  the  dead  influences 
conduct  and  determines  ideals.  The  great  souls  of  all  the 
yesterdays  continue  to  live  in  the  most  vital  and  influential 
social  relationships  with  all  tliinking  beings  to-day.  Here 
is  no  small  element  in  the  real  enriching  of  life  and  the 
world  through  education.  The  ignorant  man  is  he  of  the 
circumscribed  world;  he  knows  not  at  all  the  great  proces- 
sion of  souls  who  have  gone  on  before  and  who  still  stand 
about  all  who  seek  fellowship  with  them.  Socrates,  Jesus, 
Amos,  Homer,  Euripides,  Dante,  and  the  innumerable  host 
are  in  our  social  world  and  help  to  make  us  what  we  are. 
They  are  near  to  us  because  their  spirit  has  been  treasured 
in  deathless  words  and  ideals.  In  the  unfading  power  of 
such  spirits  we  recognize  the  deathless  spirit  of  man.  So 
also,  according  to  the  reality  of  our  living,  does  the  selfhood 
of  each  of  us  go  down  through  the  ages.  In  like  manner 
all  ages  become  ours,  mediated  to  us  through  the  spirits  that 
cannot  die.  Thus,  in  part,  we  find  ourselves  in  a  spiritual 
universe.    The  world  of  spirits  is  our  society,  also. 

Nor  is  this  wider  reach  of  social  relationships  confined  to 
the  great  souls  that  shine  through  the  misty  past.  In  no 
uncertain  way  do  others,  unknown  to  fame,  live  with  us. 
Our  world  of  personality  includes  many  souls.  Friends  die, 
but  friendship,  the  social  essential,  remains.  Underneath 
all  these  finite  relationships,  and  expressing  itself  in  them, 
is  the  "love  divine  all  love  excelling."  Each  one  knows 
that  in  such  relationships,  in  the  fact  that  there  are  other 
lives  which  one  may  really  know,  lies  one  of  the  elements 


THE  AIM  OF  EDUCATION  33 

of  the  unchanging  value  and  reality  of  life.  Education  deals 
with  persons  capable  of  such  relationships,  persons  whose 
life  reaches  out  to  all  life,  who  live  in  the  spirit  because  they 
are  spirits.  Education  deals  with  persons  who  are  body, 
mind,  feeling,  and  will,  whose  lives  are  personal,  lived  in  a 
world  of  personal,  and,  therefore,  spiritual  relationships. 
Education  is  a  spiritual  process.  ' 

THE  AIM  OF  EDUCATION 

One  other  consideration  must  be  mentioned  briefly.  If 
education  is  the  directed  development  of  such  a  person,  in  a 
world  that  embraces  all  time  and  all  being,  it  deals  with 
him  for  the  purpose  of  developing  his  entire  powers.  It  seeks 
to  make  him  efficient  to  live,  that  is,  to  cause  knowledge, 
feeling,  and  judgment  to  issue  in  right  conduct.  Now 
conduct  wherever  it  is  voluntary  is  largely  determined  by 
motives.  A  motive  is  the  sum  of  one's  judgment  and  feeling 
as  to  the  meaning  and  values  in  a  situation.  It  is  the  sense 
of  duty  or  of  desire  which  indorses  or  prohibits  an  action. 
Innumerable  elements  enter  into  a  decision  to  act  even 
though  it  is  made  in  a  lightning-flash.  These  elements  have 
been  accumulating  over  a  long  time  by  the  way  we  have 
learned  to  look  at  things,  to  choose  one  kind  of  good  or 
another.  An  interpretation  of  life  enters  into  and  guides, 
more  or  less  consciously,  every  deliberate  act.  By  the  de- 
velopment of  habits  and  by  the  formation  of  judgments  on 
life's  values,  all  conduct  is  being  continuously  determined. 
Habit  is  the  mechanism  and  motive  is  the  mainspring  of  the 
moral  life,  the  life  of  intelligent,  responsible,  social  conduct. 
What  life  is  to  you  as  you  see  it  in  all  its  breadth,  what  its 
possibilities  are  to  you,  what  it  means  of  fellowship  and  of 


34  WHAT  DO  WE  MEAN  BY  EDUCATION? 

joy,  these  are  its  values.  These  meanings  make  every  mo- 
tive. These  meanings  are  your  rehgion.  The  judgment 
values,  the  meaning  and  interpretation  of  life  constitute  the 
essential,  vital,  distinguishing  element  in  each  person's  re- 
ligion.* Without  this  element  education  is  helpless  in  its 
programme  of  developing  persons  into  fulness  of  social  liv- 
ing. It  must  reach  the  controls  of  conduct  and,  therefore,  it 
comes  back  to  life's  interpretative  ideals — to  religion.  In 
this  sense  all  persons  are  essentially  religious;  they  cannot  be 
satisfied  with  the  immediate  phenomena  of  life,  but  they 
must  search  out  its  meaning,  and  especially  its  meaning  for 
them.  And  since  they  are  guided  in  life  by  the  meaning 
they  discover,  education  must  recognize  that  it  deals  with 
religious  beings  and  constantly  must  take  this  essential  fact 
into  account. 

THE  RELIGIOUS  QUALITY 

Does  not  this  suggest  that  education,  dealing  with  spiritual 
beings,  cannot  escape  religious  significance?  It  may  speak 
of  its  processes  as  though  they  were  limited  to  realms  out- 
side of  religion,  but  the  truth  is,  that  it  cannot  develop  a 
person  in  parts  or  fractions  of  his  life;  it  must  reach  and  grow 
all  the  man,  and,  therefore,  must  deal  with  him  as  a  spirit, 
as  a  religious  being.  It  is  determining  the  size  of  his  uni- 
verse, the  value  of  his  ideals,  and  the  habits  of  his  life. 
But  all  the  time  it  has  to  do  with  one  whose  essential  life 
is  in  the  spirit,  in  the  realities  of  values,  meanings,  relation- 
ships, and  possibilities  that  can  be  comprehended  and  ex- 
plained in  no  terms  short  of  a  spiritual  society. 

*  See  George  A.  Coe's  statement  for  this  "revaluation  of  values"  on 
pp.  68-70  in  Psychology  of  Religion  (Univ.  of  Chicago  Press,  1916), 


THE  RELIGIOUS  QUALITY  35 

There  is,  then,  a  sense  in  which  all  education  is  religious 
education  because  it  deals  with  persons  who  are  in  nature 
religious.  It  deals  with  them  for  ultimately  religious  pur- 
poses, that  they  may  live  in  a  world  of  spiritual  beings.  It 
is  also  true  that,  in  a  sense,  its  processes  are  religious,  since 
they  are  only  scientific  so  far  as  they  are  based  on  the  un- 
changing laws  of  the  universe  as  discovered  in  the  natures 
of  these  spiritual  beings.  This  concept  of  education  we 
need  to  foster.  In  all  teachers,  in  ourselves,  we  need  to 
develop  the  sense  of  dealing  with  religious  persons,  of  being 
always  engaged  in  religious  work . 

There  is  an  important  sense  in  which  all  formal  education 
is  religious,  since  it  directs  itself  specifically  to  deal  with 
spiritual  beings  and  cannot  escape  that  relationship  and 
responsibility.  But  it  is  very  important,  for  the  sake  of 
definiteness  in  thinking,  to  consider  education  in  its  pre- 
cise methods,  in  its  directed,  determinative  forms.  Among 
these  methods  and  forms,  we  must  consider  those  in  which 
the  concept  of  religious  persons  and  the  purpose  of  pre- 
paring them  for  religious  living  in  a  religious  society  rises 
definitely  into  consciousness.  If  the  religious  quality  of 
education  and  its  spiritual  aim  are  to  be  clearly  maintained 
then  religion  must  be  explicit  as  well  as  implicit. 

To  say  that  all  education  is  religious  is  only,  after  all,  to 
say  that  all  life  is  religious.  But  in  order  that  life  may  be 
religious,  men  and  women  must  know  what  are  the  religious 
qualities  and  values  in  life.  They  must  know  in  what  man- 
ner and  by  what  means  men  have  given  expression  to  the 
religious  interpretation  of  life.  The  life  of  the  spirit  must 
have  its  own  food,  its  light  and  nurture.  True,  it  feeds  on 
all  forms;   but  all  forms  become  its  food  only  as  they  are 


36  WHAT  DO  WE  MEAN  BY  EDUCATION? 

clearly  seen  in  relationships  to  life's  wider,  spiritual  meanings 
and  powers.  Such  relationships  must  be  made  clear;  they 
must  be  revealed  and  explained.  If  religion  is  this  life  as 
determined  in  its  meanings  by  the  high  consciousness  or 
hope  of  social  relationships  with  the  widest,  furthest  reach 
of  being,*  of  the  spirit  of  man  with  all  spiritual  life,  and 
w^ith  God  the  father  of  spirits,  then  this  wider,  furthest 
circle  of  life  must  be  apprehended  that  its  existence  may  in- 
terpret all  our  present  life.  It  must  be  known  and  under- 
stood in  order  that  it  may  give  value,  meaning,  and  direc- 
tion to  all  experience.  Moreover,  each  life  needs  the  en- 
riching of  its  heritage  in  all  that  the  race  has  accumulated 
of  such  ideals.  It  needs  the  light  and  guidance  of  the  ex- 
perience of  all  past  lives.  It  needs  the  impulse,  the  motives 
that  come  from  all  that  the  religious  spirit  has  known  and 
felt  and  achieved. 

Education  then  is  the  directed  development  of  persons 
into  the  full  experience  of  all  their  social  universe.  Specif- 
ically, religious  education  is  training  and  instruction  in  the 
life  of  the  larger,  infinite  spiritual  society.  It  is  the  education 
of  a  religious  person  by  religious  means,  for  religious  living 
in  a  religious  social  order  which  is  part  of  a  spiritual  uni- 
verse. It  is  training  man  as  the  child  of  God  for  the  family 
of  God. 

*  See  Prof.  G.  A.  Coe's  treatment  of  religion  as  the  discovery  of  per- 
sons and  society  in  chap.  XIV  of  The  Psychology  of  Religion. 


REFERENCES  37 


REFERENCES 

I.   EDUCATION 

Welton,  J.,  What  Do  We  Mean  by  Education  f  (Macmillan,  1915). 
Bagley,  W.  C,  The  Educative  Process  (Macmillan,  1905). 
Moore,  Ernest  C,  What  is  Education  f  (Ginn  &  Co.,  1915). 

II.   RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

CoE,  George  Albert,  A  Social  Theory  of  Religious  Education  (Scrib- 
ners,  1917). 

King,  Henry  C,  Personal  and  Ideal  Elements  in  Education  (Macmillan). 

Religious  Education  Association,  The  Bible  in  Practical  Life  (Con- 
vention papers,  1904).  ' 

Religious  Education,  the  bimonthly  magazine  of  the  Religious  Educa- 
tion Association,  contains  many  articles  on  both  the  principles 
and  the  methods  of  religious  education. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  MEANING  OF  EDUCATION  IN  THE  CHURCH 

The  difficulty  of  thinking  of  the  church  as  "  an  educational 
agency"  lies  in  the  fixed  meaning  we  have  attached  to  the 
adjective.  Speak  the  word  "education,"  and  there  flashes 
before  the  mind  a  picture  either  of  college  buildings  set 
about  a  campus  or  of  a  classroom  containing  a  teacher 
and  learners.  Popularly,  an  educator  is  one  who,  being 
possessed  of  a  large  quantity  of  information,  is  employed  to 
distribute  that  information  to  less  fortunate — but  not  at 
all  envious — ^young  persons. 

Popular  views  are  often  misleading.  Many  persons 
suspect  that  "education"  is  simply  a  high-sounding  phrase 
for  the  simple  art  of  clothing  the  naturally  naked  mind  with 
the  garments  of  information.  The  information-acquisition 
idea  is  still  prevalent.  Here  is  the  teacher,  a  peripatetic 
warehouse  of  facts;  here  is  the  child  or  youth,  comparable 
to  an  empty  freight-car;  here  is  the  machinery  of  the 
schoolhouse,  tracks  to  switch  the  car  up  to  the  warehouse, 
mechanisms  to  hold  the  car  during  the  loading  process, 
authority  to  determine  when  the  car  is  duly  loaded,  and 
to  place  an  official  seal  or  tag  certifying  to  the  same. 
Popularly,  the  educated  man  has  been  through  this  process; 
the  man  who  has  taken  any  other  process  is  not  educated;  a 
college  degree  is  the  way-bill  of  this  freight-car  routing  it 


THE  CHURCH  AS  AN  EDUCATOR     39 

to  social  and  business  success,  though  by  no  means  insuring 
delivery. 

Such  general  conceptions  are  emphasized  because  from 
them  principally  arises  the  diflficulty  of  accepting  an  educa- 
tional definition  of  the  function  of  the  church.  To  say  that 
the  church  is  an  educator  is  to  suggest  a  picture  of  the 
church  organized  for  purposes  of  instruction,  its  buildings 
converted  into  academic  halls,  its  leaders  wearing  college 
gowns,  and  its  people,  young  and  old,  meekly  seated  in 
classes,  while  its  product  for  the  world  is  a  freightage  of  in- 
formation about  religious  history,  literature,  and  philosophy. 
Because  we  all  know  that  converting  a  church  into  a  theo- 
logical seminary  would  not  make  it  a  more  religious  in- 
stitution, and  certainly  would  not  meet  the  real  and  deep 
needs  of  the  human  group  about  it,  we  reject  that  concept 
of  its  mission. 

But  the  acceptance  of  the  educational  function  of  the 
church  does  not  at  all  involve  its  conversion  into  an  aca- 
demic institution.  It  does  not  mean  that  its  chief  workers 
shall  be  learned  persons  spiritually  dying  from  undigested 
information.  It  does  not  mean  converting  the  sermon  into 
a  lecture,  and  every  meeting  into  a  class.  It  does  not  mean 
substituting  thinking  for  being,  definitions  for  deeds,  glorify- 
ing knowledge  as  an  end  in  itself,  and  substituting  parch- 
ments and  participles  for  people. 

It  is  true  that  a  few  churches,  emphasizing  the  word 
education  in  large  type  on  their  bulletins,  and  boasting  of 
curricula  arranged  to  resemble  college  catalogues,  have 
tried  to  woo  the  world  by  the  fascination  of  academic  termi- 
nology. They  have  thought  they  were  educational  institu- 
tions because  they  had  systems  for  imparting  information 


40  EDUCATION  IN  THE  CHURCH 

which  would  insure  that  if  they  could  have  a  child  from 
primary  to  graduate  years  he  would  know  as  much  as  a 
whole  faculty  of  theology.  Such  programmes  have  been 
born  in  a  fever  of  intellectual  pride  and  died  in  the  frost 
of  human  indifference. 

THE  SOCIAL  PROCESS  IN  THE  CHURCH 

But,  for  the  church  as  for  us  all,  education  means  a  whole 
life  process  in  which  knowledge  plays  an  important,  but 
essentially  subsidiary  part.  The  educational  programme  in 
the  church  means,  first,  that  she  is  organized  as  a  social 
institution  which  accepts  the  'purpose  of  developing  persons 
to  the  fulness  of  their  lives  as  its  prime  responsibility.  The 
special  function  of  the  church  grows  out  of  her  recognition 
of  persons  as  religious  beings  and  her  loyalty  to  the  purpose 
to  develop  in  them  the  fulness  of  life  as  religious  persons. 
The  educational  programme  simply  means  that  whatever 
the  church  does,  in  all  things,  is  determined  by  the  one  con- 
trolling purpose  to  bring  men  toward  God  in  character,  like- 
ness, and  conscious  relationships.  The  church  is  an  educator 
in  the  degree  that,  because  of  her  existence  and  work,  men 
actually  do  grow  in  the  spiritual  life,  the  kind  of  life  that  is 
spiritual  in  character  and  reach,  and  in  the  degree  that  so- 
ciety comes  nearer  to  the  will  of  God  in  the  spiritual  inter- 
pretation of  all  life. 

A  family  is  an  educational  agency  in  the  degree  that  all 
its  life,  its  organization,  its  activities,  and  relationships  are 
determined  by  its  purpose  to  inspire,  stimulate  and  direct 
those  lives  for  which  it  is  responsible. 

There  are  workshops  that  are  truly  educational  agencies. 
They  stimulate,  inspire,  and  develop  lives.    People  come 


THE  EDUCATOR'S  FAITH  41 

out  of  them  knowing  and  feeling  more  fully  what  life  means, 
and  being  more  competent  to  live.*  But  with  the  church, 
the  maintenance  of  such  processes  is  her  sole  aim  and  func- 
tion. 

True  educational  programmes  go  far  beyond  all  mechan- 
isms for  imparting  information.  Telling  folks  things  or 
tethering  them  to  text-books  is  not  the  distinguishmg  feature 
of  an  educational  church.  Whatever  is  directed  to  develop- 
ing, enriching,  co-ordinating,  and  controlling  the  powers  of  a 
life  is  education.  The  classroom  is  but  a  small  part  of  that 
programme. 

There  is  danger,  too,  of  similar  misunderstanding  when  we 
seek  to  define  more  exactly  the  purpose  of  the  church  and 
speak  of  its  programme  as  one  of  religious  education.  That 
danger  lies  in  the  error  of  thinking  of  religious  education  as 
a  matter  of  acquiring  knowledge  about  religion.  We  use 
the  word  "religion"  as  defining  the  quahty  and  aim  of  the 
process,  not  alone  as  defining  the  content  of  any  body  of 
teaching.  Rehgious  education  in  the  church  simply  means 
the  organization  of  those  methods  and  processes  which  de- 
velop persons  as  religious  beings  into  efficiency  in  living  in 
a  religious  society. 

THE   educator's    FAITH 

The  educational  programme  is  based,  second,  upon  faith  in 
life  as  growth.  Religious  education  regards  persons  as  hav- 
ing the  capacity  or  possibility  of  growth  in  powers,  in  per- 
sonality, and  in  the  whole  range  of  life.  The  first  article 
of  its  creed  is  that  man  w^as  made  to  grow,  and  it  extends 

*  See  "Character  Development  Through  Social  Living,"  H.  F.  Cope, 
Religious  Education,  vol.  IV,  pp.  401-410. 


42  EDUCATION  IN  THE  CHURCH 

this  article  by  the  faith  that  man  was  made  to  grow  to  the 
utmost  fulness  of  being  of  which  man  has  conceived.  We 
cannot  but  believe  that  if  man  can  think  of  God,  man 
must  go  on  to  be  in  character  like  that  of  which  he  thinks. 
The  aim  is  no  less  than  men  growing  into  the  likeness  of  the 
Most  High.  That  which  distinguishes  religious  education 
from  general  education  is  the  explicit  recognition  of  the 
greater  range  of  powers  in  the  person  being  educated.  It 
regards  the  child,  not  simply  as  having  a  mind,  nor  alone  as 
a  potential  citizen,  housekeeper,  and  wage-earner;  it  regards 
him  as  possessed  of  Godlike  qualities,  as  destined  to  larger 
life  in  a  society  which  holds  in  one  life  God  and  all  mankind. 
To  rehgious  education  he  is  more  than  an  intelligence  to  be 
developed,  he  is  a  person  to  come  to  the  fulness  of  life  in  a 
universe  explicable  only  on  the  basis  of  the  supremacy  of 
personality. 

Religious  education  to-day  stands  as  a  vital,  inspiring 
faith  in  the  world.  It  is  rich  in  spiritual  aspiration.  It  is 
faith  in  growth.  It  is  faith  in  the  possibilities  of  human  life. 
Faith  in  the  processes  of  education  marks  the  difference 
between  the  human  family  and  the  bird-nest.  This  faith 
accounts  for  the  school.  Both  stand  to  say  to  us  all:  We 
believe  in  life;  we  believe  that  man  was  made  to  grow  and 
not  to  stop.  The  advance  of  the  race  is  marked  by  the 
measure  of  this  faith.  You  may  know  where  any  people 
are  by  the  length  of  time  they  give  children  in  which  to 
grow,  and  by  the  adequacy  of  the  provisions  they  make  for 
the  direction  and  stimulation  of  their  growth.  Children  at 
eight,  under  primitive  conditions,  could  shift  for  themselves; 
but  we  prolong  infancy,  we  extend  it  to,  perhaps,  twenty  or 
more,  because  we  count  it  possible  to  spend  all  those  years 


A  CALL  FOR  A  PROGRAMME  43 

in  real  growth.  We  count  life  so  large  a  thing  that  it  tends 
to  require  longer  periods  of  preparation.  All  this  means  at 
root  a  faith  in  the  worth  of  life. 

Moreover,  religious  education  aims  at  a  religious  ideal; 
not  only  that  the  person  shall  find  himself  fulfilled  in  the 
divine  likeness,  but  that  all  persons  shall  find  life  in  the 
religious  ideal  of  a  divine  society.  It  seeks  to  develop 
people  for  living  in  a  social  whole  v/hich  shall  be  like  the 
family  of  God.  It  therefore  does  not  deal  alone  with  in- 
dividuals, it  deals  with  the  movement  of  a  common  life 
called  society. 

Does  some  one  say,  all  these  views  the  church  has  long  held 
regarding  people,  these  interpretations  of  the  meaning  of 
personality  are  her  special  contribution?  True,  as  views 
they  have  long  been  held,  but  have  they  been  acted  upon? 
To  what  extent  have  churches  accepted  the  consequences  of 
their  own  views  of  the  meaning  of  life  ?  Holding  that  men 
were  the  children  of  God,  what  programmes  have  beei' 
adopted  for  growing  men  into  the  family  likeness?  What 
evidence  is  there  that  we  have  expected  that  this  likeness 
would  ever  be  a  reality,  or  anything  more  than  a  dim,  poetic 
ideal  ?  We  have  accepted  the  destiny  of  man  without  evei 
hoping  it  would  be  realized  in  this  world  at  all,  or,  if  we  have 
hoped  for  its  realization,  we  have  failed  to  inquire  as  to  means 
and  processes  thereto.* 

A  CALL  FOR  A  PROGRAMME 

The  acceptance  of  the  educational  purpose — the  growth 
of  Godlike  lives  in  a  society  of  the  God-will — lays  upon  the 

*  On  this  general  failure  in  education  see  Sodul  Environment  and 
Moral  Progress,  A.  R.  Wallace,  1913. 


44  EDUCATION  IN  THE  CHURCH 

church  the  duty  of  discovering  an  educational  programme. 
It  involves  the  study  of  all  its  activities  as  processes.  It 
requires  the  selection  and  organization  of  all  activities  as 
parts  of  a  definite  piu-posive  scheme.  At  present  the  church 
scarcely  can  claim  for  its  variety  of  activities  a  definite, 
unifying  purpose.  Societies,  organizations,  meetings,  and 
exercises  are  adopted  commonly,  either  under  the  impetus 
of  tradition  or  for  the  sake  of  some  immediate  end.  Many 
of  them  are  justified  only  as  means  of  maintaining  the 
mechanism  itself,  keeping  up  the  church  organization  or  the 
church  plant. 

Allowing  for  the  usual  exceptions,  is  it  unfair  to  say 
that  the  church  commonly  lacks  a  programme?  It  main- 
tains traditional  forms,  it  invents  types  of  activity  to  meet 
transitory  needs,  or  it  develops  a  scheme  of  work  designed 
principally  to  keep  its  organization  alive,  and  to  make  it 
larger.  The  church  must  be  as  wise  as  this  world.  The 
manufacturer  does  not  organize  his  plant  principally  for  the 
sake  of  having  a  factory  and  increasing  the  number  of  wheels 
in  motion.  The  church  cannot  afford  to  do  that.  It  has 
too  high  a  task.  In  the  economy  of  things  it  is  principally 
responsible  for  a  product  so  precious  it  dare  not  waste  time 
or  dissipate  energies.  If  its  task  is  to  develop  spiritual 
persons  it  must  discover  how  spiritual  persons  develop. 
They  can  grow  only  according  to  the  laws  of  spiritual  life. 
All  the  work  of  a  church  will  be  determined  by  these  laws. 
These  are  the  principles  it  must  discover  by  patient  study. 

THE  BASIS  OF  A  PKOGRAMME 

Such  a  study  does  not  lose  sight  of  the  divine  elements; 
it  does  not  ignore  the  working  of  the  spirit  of  God.    It 


THE  BASIS  OF  A  PROGRAMI\IE  45 

simply  seeks  to  discover  and  know  the  laws  of  life  in  order  to 
do  the  work  which  lies  in  our  hands.  It  asks  what  methods 
we  must  use  to  be  in  harmony  with  God  ever  working  in  his 
world.  It  takes  the  attitude  of  the  wise  farmer  or  horti- 
culturist, who  not  only  asks,  What  are  the  forces  of  na- 
ture— or  of  God — operating  to  grow  things?  but  also, 
What  are  the  things  I  must  do  to  fit  into  that  programme 
of  nature?  Our  tendency,  in  the  field  where  "God  giveth 
the  increase,"  is  to  spend  ourselves  in  descriptions  and 
definitions  of  the  divine  operations,  instead  of  seeking  to 
discover  the  principles  upon  which  all  our  work  must  be 
based.  Are  we  sure  that  what  are  called  "means  of  grace" 
are  really  those  means  of  grace — of  gro\\iJi  into  the  grace, 
or  character,  of  God — which  are  best?  Have  we  discov- 
ered the  right  methods  and  all  the  methods,  and  are  we  mak- 
ing the  most  of  them  ?  If  so,  then  all  we  can  do  is  to  work, 
to  use  them  and  have  full  faith  as  to  the  fruitage.  Where 
men  are  loyal  to  God's  laws  of  growth  there  can  be  no  doubt 
as  to  results. 

The  parable  from  agriculture  may  be  pressed  further.  The 
marvellous  development  of  this  field  in  the  past  two  decades 
has  been  due  to  scientific  inquiry  into  the  laws  of  plant  life. 
The  great  schools  of  agriculture  have  been  and  are  steadily 
conducting  studies  to  discover  and  apply  the  principles  of 
life  in  their  field.  Science  has  served  the  farm  and  orchard 
with  beneficent  results.  Science  is  simply  reverent  inquiry 
into  truth,  reverent  endeavor  to  systematize  knowledge  and 
obey  it.  It  has  to  be  reverent,  for  it  must  approach  all  the 
facts  without  prejudice;  it  must  always  be  ready  to  learn 
and  implicitly  to  obey.  Is  it  not  possible,  is  it  not  our 
duty,  to  approach  the  field  of  the  religious  life  in  the  same 


46  EDUCATION  IN  THE  CHURCH 

reverent  spirit?  Is  it  conceivable  that  there  are  laws  for 
the  lower  life  and  none  for  the  higher  ?  Or  is  it  possible  we 
must  follow  the  one  and  can  afford  to  ignore  the  other? 

THE  DUTY  OF  SCIENTIFIC  KNOWLEDGE 

The  educational  aim  of  the  church  has  this  third  feature, 
the  recognition  of  a  religious  method  of  development.  If  man 
was  made  to  grow  we  may  learn  under  what  conditions  and  by 
what  methods  this  growth  takes  place.  Otherwise  there  can 
be  no  system,  no  real  science  nor  plan  of  religious  education. 

If  there  is  any  truth  in  what  here  has  been  urged  it  evi- 
dently is  the  duty  of  every  religious  worker,  of  every  min- 
ister, pastor,  and  teacher,  to  know  the  laws  of  religious  de- 
velopment. These  laws  must  dominate  his  work  absolutely. 
To  ignore  them  is  to  waste  his  energies  and  to  frustrate  his 
own  purposes.  Law  reigns  in  the  spiritual  world.  Wilful 
ignorance  is  culpable  neglect  of  duty.  It  is  not  only  igno- 
rance, it  is  irreverence.  It  is  to  attempt  to  do  the  work  of 
God  by  ways  of  our  devising,  to  hope  to  do  the  work  of  the 
spirit  by  man's  cunning  and  skill.  This  is  the  capital  irrever- 
ence of  religion  to-day,  that  we  will  not  work  in  God's  way. 
We  lack  the  patient,  teachable  reverence  to  discover  truth; 
we  carelessly  transgress  the  divine  laws  of  the  spiritual  life. 
We  vainly  expect  results  from  methods  of  cheap  devices, 
patent  schemes  ignorantly  concocted.  We  blindly  follow 
the  tricks  of  spectacular  mountebanks  and  charlatans,  the 
modern  successful  sorcerers.  We  fail  to  see  the  essential 
irreverence  of  it  all,  the  lazy  indifference  to  truth,  the  snatch- 
ing at  quick  results,  the  defiance  of  heavenly  laws,  the  at- 
tempt to  force  the  kingdom  of  heaven  by  the  violence  of 
our  machinery.    Some  urge:  "But  the  devices  succeed." 


THE  DUTY  OF  SCIENTIFIC  KNOWLEDGE    47 

Do  they?  What  is  meant  is  not  that  they  succeed  in  the 
ultimate  purpose  of  rehgious  work,  but  that  they  succeed  in 
attracting  attention,  securing  advertising,  making  money, 
and  creating  a  sensation.  Whatever  measure  of  permanent 
success  appears  is  usually  due  to  an  accidental  following  of 
divine  law  rather  than  to  any  honest  effort  to  discover  and 
obey  it. 

If  a  man  would  work  in  any  field  to-day  he  must  know  its 
laws.  The  engineer  must  know  physics  and  mathematics. 
If  he  would  deal  with  living  things  he  must  know  the  laws 
of  life.  The  study  of  botany,  biology,  and  plant  chemistry 
may  seem  tedious  to  the  aspiring  agriculturist  who  is  eager 
to  produce  crops,  but  in  the  end  they  fully  demonstrate 
their  value.  Later  he  counts  none  of  that  time  wasted,  for 
he  knows  what  to  do,  and  when  and  w^hy.  He  has  cer- 
tainty in  his  work.  If  he  labors  in  another  field,  that  of 
education,  he  finds  the  same  patient  study  and  investiga- 
tion necessary.  Indeed,  the  field  of  education  is  more 
difficult,  for  it  is  one  of  the  latest  of  the  sciences,  it  includes 
a  larger  number  of  factors,  and  the  elements  and  operations 
do  not  so  readily  yield  to  investigation  and  classification. 
But  scientific  knowledge  of  the  processes  of  human  conscious- 
ness, of  knowledge,  reasoning,  will,  and  action  is  growing 
steadily.  So  also  this  field  of  knowledge  of  man  as  a  spir- 
itual being  is  coming  to  have  a  more  complete  scientific 
basis.  The  laws  of  religious  development  are  being  more 
fully  discovered.  These  laws  are  the  working  principles  for 
all  those  who  are  religious  teachers  and  leaders.  They  are 
the  laws  upon  which  the  work  of  a  church  must  be  based. 

The  function  of  religious  education  in  a  church  implies, 
then,  the  adoption  of  a  clearly  defined  programme  for  the 


48  EDUCATION  IN  THE  CHURCH 

development  of  religious  persons  in  a  religious  society,  based 
upon  faith  in  life  as  growth,  conducted  upon  the  discoverable 
laws  under  which  religious  persons  grow  and  a  religious  so- 
ciety is  organized,  and  guided  by  leaders  trained  in  and 
obedient  to  these  laws. 

ADVANTAGES  IN  THE  CHURCH 

The  church  has  peculiar  advantages  as  an  educational  in- 
stitution; in  its  very  nature  as  an  organization  it  possesses 
some  of  the  ideal  conditions  for  education.  First,  it  has 
an  advantage  as  a  society.  Education  is  a  social  process. 
Modern  education  seeks  to  provide  in  the  school  natural 
social  relations  and  conditions.  In  the  life  of  a  church  these 
conditions  are  already  established.  Persons  are  brought 
together  under  a  variety  of  relationships;  they  learn  to  live 
together.  Second,  the  church  has  the  advantage  of  indirec- 
tion; the  educational  process  goes  forward  largely  uncon- 
sciously. The  institution  is  not  labelled  as  a  school.  Thu*d, 
it  has  the  advantage  of  ideal  aims.  Through  all  its  social 
life  the  members  feel  the  attraction  of  high  purposes  and 
noble  concepts.  Fourth,  its  work  furnishes  ample  oppor- 
tunity for  activities  which  are  commonly  simple  outgrowths 
of  the  social  relationships  and  the  high  ideals.  The  work 
furnishes  expressional  activities  which  are  free  from  con- 
sciousness of  the  educational  purpose.  Fifth,  the  greater 
part  of  instruction  may  be  most  closely  related  to  experience. 
It  becomes  an  essential  part  of  life.  Sixth,  it  reaches  all 
kinds  of  persons  all  through  their  lives.  Its  curriculum  need 
know  no  bounds  of  age  or  of  condition. 

The  church  fully  realizes  its  opportunity  and  discharges 
its  function  in  the  degree  that  it  organizes  all  its  activities 


ADVANTAGES  IN  THE  CHURCH  49 

for  the  development  of  the  lives  of  persons  as  social,  religious 
beings.  Under  this  ideal  we  turn  to  study  the  varied 
organizations  and  activities  of  a  church  as  educational 
opportunities. 

REFERENCES 

EDUCATION  THROUGH  THE  CHURCH 

CoE,  George  Albert,  A  Social  Theory  of  Religious  Education  (Scrib- 

ners,  1917).     An  indispensable  study. 

Education  in  Religion  and  Morcds  (Revell,  1904). 

BusHNELL,  Horace,  Christian  Nurture  (Scribners,  revised  edition,  1917). 

The  classic  presenting  the  fundamental  argument  for  religious 

education. 
WiLM,  Emil  Carl,  The  Cidture  of  Religion  (Pilgrim  Press,  1912). 
Religious  Education  Association,   TJw  Irajprovement  of  Religious 

Education  (Convention  papers,  1903). 

The  Aiins  of  Religious  Education  (Convention  papers,  1905). 

Faunce,  W.  H.  p..  The  Educational  Ideal  and  the  Ministry  (Macmillan, 

1908). 
Gailor,  T.  F.,  The  Christian  Church  and  Education  (Whittaker,  1910). 
Faunce,  W.  H.  P.,  and  Willett,  Herbert  L.,  "Church  and  Religious 

Education,"  Religious  Education,  vol.  IV,  pp.  527-541. 
SouTmvoRTH,  F.  C,  article  in  Religious  Education  for  December,  1916, 

p.  477. 

scientific  basis  of  religious  education 

Coe,  G.  a.,  The  Psychology  of  Religion  (Univ.  of  Chicago  Press,  1916). 
One  of  the  most  important  recent  works;  essential  to  any 
thorough  study. 

Ames,  Edward  S.,  The  Psychology  of  Religious  Experience  (Houghton 
Mifflin,  1910).     A  comprehensive  study. 

Waterhouse,  E.  S.,  The  Psychology  of  the  Christian  Life  (Chas.  H. 
Kelly,  1913).     A  fairly  simple  introduction. 

James,  William,  The  Varieties  of  Religimis  Experience  (Longmans, 
Green,  1902).  A  classic  on  the  subject.  It  analyzes  the  dif- 
ferent types  of  experience  as  revealed  in  a  large  number  of 
cases  drawn  from  literatiu-e,  history,  and  current  observation. 

Starbuck,  Edwin  D.,  The  Psychology  of  Religion  (Scribners,  1899). 
The  first  book  to  study  the  phenomena  of  conversion. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  FUNCTION  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

Public  worship  is  the  one  outstanding,  common  activity 
of  all  churches.  However  much  they  may  differ  in  creed  and 
in  ritual,  the  day  of  rest  is  the  day  of  greatest  activity  for 
them  all,  and  services  of  worship,  of  widely  varying  forms, 
are  the  principal  occupation  of  the  day.  We  take  for 
granted  the  Sunday-morning  church-bells  and  the  com- 
panies of  well-dressed  persons  on  their  way  to  services.  A 
stranger  would  assume  that  this  was  one  of  our  national  or 
racial  institutions.  Until  very  recently  it  has  been  so 
embedded  in  social  habit  as  to  require  no  further  sanction 
than  that  of  tradition. 

Do  the  churches  conduct  Sunday  services  of  worship 
largely  as  a  matter  of  social  habit  ?  If  not,  what  is  the  his- 
tory of  this  custom  ?  Few  are  so  thoughtful,  or  presumptu- 
ous, as  to  inquire  whether  there  is  any  rational  basis,  any 
adequate  purpose,  in  the  custom.  One  is  expected  to 
"attend"  church — mark  the  significance  of  the  current 
phrase  "attend  church" — ^just  as  one  is  expected  to  wear 
certain  kinds  of  clothes  at  certain  times.  In  many  places, 
especially  in  riu'al  districts,  there  is  serious  doubt  as  to  the 
respectability  of  persons  who  do  not  attend  worship  in  some 
church  at  least  once  every  Sunday.  A  variety  of  reasons 
may  be  given  for  this  expectation,  but  custom  is  its  strongest 

50 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP       51 

argument.  It  is  regarded  as  a  good  habit,  one  associated 
with  "Sunday  clothes"  and  with  the  distinctions  of  the  day 
of  rest.  When  the  inquiring  mind  asks,  Why  ?  the  answers 
seem  to  falter.  Apostolic  injunctions  will  be  quoted,  but 
with  little  evidence  of  pertinency.  Ecclesiastical  authority 
will  be  cited  and  tradition  may  be  urged,  but  these  do  not 
give  the  reason  why.  Yet  the  evident  bearing  of  all  argu- 
ment is  that  the  service  of  worship  is  the  principal  function 
of  the  church  and  that  one  can  hardly  be  a  true  member  of 
the  church  and  neglect  these  services. 

The  attitude  of  the  pubHc  toward  public  worship,  however, 
shows  that  a  rather  clear  and  definite  concept  of  its  purpose 
and  meaning  exists  to-day.  The  public  expects  that  these 
services  shall  be  attractive,  that  they  shall  constitute  a  mild 
form  of  diversion  respectably  labelled  as  religion,  and  many 
churches  definitely  cater  to  this  expectation.  If  the  services 
are  advertised  the  appeal  is  made  to  the  reader  by  striking 
topics  of  sermons,  or  it  is  based  upon  the  high  quality  of 
entertainment.  Seldom  does  one  read  any  reference  to 
worship.  In  every  way  the  passer-by  i,s  assured  iivdt  Ijc 
will  be  entert'iupd.  in  fact,  we  have  become  accustomed  to 
seeing  churches  compete  for  popular  attendance  with  com- 
mercialized amusements  and  use  some  of  the  same  induce- 
ments. The  man  on  the  street  judges  the  service  of  worship 
by  the  quality  of  the  musical  programme  or  by  the  ability 
of  the  speaker  to  make  him  forget  the  passage  of  time. 
He  is  not  alone  to  blame  for  such  criteria,  for  the  church 
has  been  busy  promising  him  that  she  could  and  would 
meet  them.  At  least,  in  many  communions  she  has  created 
the  current  idea  of  the  church  service  as  a  form  of  enter- 
tainment suitable  to  the  day  of  religion. 


52      THE  FUNCTION  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 


WHAT  HAS  BECOME  OF  WORSHIP  T 

Stranger  still,  at  least  in  the  light  of  history,  is  the  atti- 
tude of  church-members  toward  the  Sunday  services  of 
worship.  Their  concepts  can  fairly  be  inferred  by  the 
elements  which  they  select  for  commendation  and  by  their 
characteristic  current  comments.  Evidently,  to  many  the 
service  is  simply  a  programme  of  music,  diversified  by  prayer 
and  reading,  and  ending  with  oratory.  For  large  numbers 
the  music  is  the  important  and  most  attractive  feature,  and 
the  work  of  the  choir  or  soloists  is  the  centre  of  their  inter- 
ests. To  others,  especially  to  the  older  generation,  the 
attraction  lies  in  the  eloquence  of  the  minister.  These, 
music  and  oratory,  are  the  two  things  on  which  popular 
pride  is  based;  these  are  the  two  magnets  by  which  the 
church  expects  to  draw  in  the  outsiders.  In  many  non- 
liturgical  churches  the  minister  is  selected,  or  "called,"  al- 
most solely  on  the  basis  of  his  powers  of  oratory.  If  it  comes 
to  pass  that  these  powers  decline,  if  he  ceases  to  be  an  "  at- 
tractive preacher,"  the  church  will  grow  restive  and  dis- 
contented and  he  will  receive  hints  that  other  fields  need 
him  more  than  this  one.  Is  it  not  also  true  that  in  the 
ordering  of  such  churches  one  of  the  most  serious,  perplexing, 
and  often  divisive  questions  is  that  of  the  music  and  its 
leaders,  creators,  or  performers,  as  the  case  may  be  ?  There 
are  three  church  committees  that  turn  the  hair  gray — they 
are  "Pulpit,"  "Music,"  and  "Finance." 

Is  the  decline  in  church  attendance  to  be  attributed  wholly 
to  a  growing  spirit  of  irreligion  ?  Is  it  not  rather  that  men 
turn  from  that  which  is  neither  worship  nor  amusement, 
though  it  attempts  or  pretends  to  be  both?    If  we  advertise 


WHAT  HAS  BECOME  OF  WORSHIP?         53 

bread  and  offer  only  stones,  is  it  likely  that  we  can  long  hold 
the  multitude?  Of  many  a  church  service  it  may  well  be 
said:  "God  is  not  in  all  their  thoughts."  Before  we  de- 
nounce the  godlessness  of  the  times  we  might  well  inquire 
as  to  the  real  godliness  of  our  own  organized  religious 
life. 

One  must  always  be  cautious  with  generalities — there  are 
many  churches  where  worship  is  real  and  deeply  reverent. 
But  is  it  unfair  to  say  that,  no  matter  what  the  variety  of 
other  activities  may  be  and  no  matter  what  the  quality  of 
reverence  may  be,  in  a  great  number  of  non-liturgical 
churches  to-day  the  Sunday  services  constitute  the  centre 
about  which  all  the  life  revolves,  the  principal  affair  of  the 
church,  and  that  in  these  services  the  two  outstanding, 
dominating  features  are  a  musical  programme  and  a  ser- 
mon? Is  it  unfair  to  say  that  in  the  minds  of  by  far  the 
greater  number  of  persons  the  first,  great  commandment  is 
that  these  two  features,  music  and  oratory,  shall  be  attrac- 
tive or  entertaining? 

In  the  liturgical  churches  the  situation  is  somewhat 
different,  though  here  it  is  quite  evident  that  often  there 
is  keen  consciousness  of  the  advertising  quahty  and  drawing 
power  of  musical  programmes.  But  the  real  danger  lies  in 
another  direction.  The  Hturgy  is  rich  in  stimulus  for 
worship;  but  all  its  power  may  be  lost  if  it  is  followed  in 
a  blind,  mechanical  manner.  Wherever  the  conduct  of 
worship  is  thoughtless  it  must  be  irreverent.  There  is 
also  the  danger  that  the  dignity  of  the  ritual  and  the  riches 
of  symbolism  shall  be  emphasized  for  their  immediate 
spectacular  effect  rather  than  for  their  tremendous  powers 
of  spiritual  development  through  worship. 


54      THE  FUNCTION  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

WHY  SUNDAY  SERVICES? 

The  question  remains,  Why  conduct  or  hold  these  Sun- 
day services?  What  purpose  do  they  serve?  If  we  mean 
an^iJiing  by  calHng  them  services  of  worship,  what  is  the 
pm'pose  of  worship?  What  is  the  underlying  idea  of  wor- 
ship? Even  when  we  get  away  from  the  thought  of  pre- 
senting an  attractive  programme,  what  idea  of  worship 
remains?  The  problem  of  public  worship  must  be  faced 
squarely.  The  first  question  ought  to  be,  Why?  To 
what  end  is  it  instituted  and  maintained  ?  It  must  justify 
its  demands  on  time.  It  must  establish  its  right  to  a  place 
in  the  programme  of  the  church. 

Frequently  the  answer  would  be  that  religious  people 
ought  to  worship  God  because  he  is  God,  because  it  is  a 
duty  we  owe  him.  We  talk  of  pleasing  him  with  our  praises, 
of  bringing  offerings  of  song  and  adoration  to  him.  We 
tend  to  think  of  a  God  who  demands  our  prostration  in 
recognition  of  his  greatness  and  power.  When  services  of 
worship  are  thus  regarded  in  their  fundamental  aspects 
they  become  as  the  offerings  of  bulls  and  rams  on  ancient 
altars.  Is  it  the  case  that  we  assemble  in  churches  to  satisfy 
the  pride  of  the  Jehovah  god?  Is  this  what  services  of 
worship  mean  ? 

Undoubtedly,  much  superstition  remains  even  in  Chris- 
tian churches,  but  there  are  few  who  would  openly  avow  the 
motive  of  sacrificial  tribute.  We  are  conscious  of  the  in- 
adequacy of  this  answer.  A  ceremonial  of  obeisance  before 
the  Almighty  can  be  but  a  craven,  perfunctory  affair.  A 
public  act  of  prostration  will  be  only  formal  and  exterior. 
It  is  essentially  contrary  to  our  idea  of  a  God  who  calls  us 


WHAT  IS  WORSHIP?  55 

to  draw  near,  not  by  crawling  in  the  dust,  but  as  children 
who  look  into  a  Father's  face.  Public  worship  is  surely 
more  than  a  ministry  to  the  pride  of  the  Deity. 

WHAT  IS  WORSHIP? 

Worship  rises  out  of  our  need;  it  obeys  an  inner  im- 
perative rather  than  any  external  authority.  It  is  the  out- 
reach of  our  lives.  It  is  our  search  for  natural  relations  with 
wider,  higher  spiritual  life.  Because  we  hunger  for  life  we 
seek  means  of  communion  with  God  as  the  life  of  all.  In 
real  life  every  soul  hungers  for  righteousness.  We  need 
encouragement.  We  need  ideals  to  lift  up  our  hearts  and 
strengthen  our  hands.  And  we  need  to  feel  the  strength 
of  the  many  who  have  common  needs  and  common  hopes. 
Worship  is  a  need  of  the  social  spirit  seeking  communion 
with  other  spirits  on  its  highest  levels.  Worship  is  a  need 
of  personal  life  seeking  fellowship  with  the  Person  who  is 
Life.  Worship  is  man's  search  for  the  society  of  God.  We 
meet  to  worship  God,  not  because  he  needs  our  praises,  but 
because  we  need  the  stimulus,  the  inspiring,  the  up-pull 
of  the  consciousness  of  the  divine  reality,  of  the  things  that 
are  before  us. 

But  even  when  the  thought  of  worship  is  lifted  to  the 
level  of  sincere  adoration  and  communion  the  public  services 
often  seem  to  have  little  relation  to  this  great  experience. 
Surely,  if  we  think  of  God  as  the  Father  with  whom  we  would 
always  dwell,  it  must  sound  strange  to  issue  a  weekly  call 
for  an  hour  of  communion  with  him.  And,  even  if  that  be 
the  purpose,  how  little  does  the  programme  provided  stimu- 
late any  such  communion!  Indeed,  is  not  the  sense  of 
unreality  in  communion  due  to  the  artificial  and  perverted 


56      THE  FUNCTION  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

nature  of  most  services  of  worship  ?  Would  it  not  be  possi- 
ble to  have  such  public  assemblies  as  would  meet  deep  needs 
of  our  natures  and  experiences  in  such  a  way  that  we  would 
not  have  to  be  coaxed  to  them,  but  would  with  difficulty  be 
kept  from  them  ? 

WHY  PUBLIC  WORSHIP? 

Public  worship  is  social  utilization  of  the  accumulated 
spiritual  life,  the  use  of  the  emotions  and  aspirations  of 
the  many  for  the  life  of  each.  Social  impulses,  stimuli,  and 
realizations  are  stronger  than  individual  ones.  Two  or 
three  met  in  His  name  are  stronger,  see  more  clearly  and 
keenly,  feel  more  deeply,  resolve  more  highly  than  two  or 
three  thinking  separately  in  His  name.  There  is  the  method 
and  motive.  We  meet  because  each  one  is  more  when  with 
others  than  when  alone.  Social  forces  are  at  work.  A 
group  is,  as  a  group,  seeking  larger  and  richer  life.  Here, 
in  such  processes,  is  the  clew  to  the  ordering  of  a  service  of 
worship.  It  must  be  thought  out  in  terms  of  effect,  stimu- 
lus, and  growth  in  the  lives  of  worshippers.  In  other  words, 
worship  is  an  educational  process — because  it  has  to  do 
with  a  social  group  seeking  growth — and  its  conduct  is  an 
'  'iucational  problem. 

THE  EDUCATIONAL  PROCESS 

An  educational  concept  of  the  service  of  worship  does  not 
imply  its  conversion  into  an  academic  occasion,  nor  does 
it  mean  that  it  exists  only  or  primarily  for  purposes  of  in- 
struction. It  does  mean  that  we  think  of  it  as  directed  to 
the  development  of  the  lives  of  persons. 
\  In  public  worship  the  church  is  engaged  in  religious  educa- 


GROWTH  BY  ASSOCIATION  57 

tlon  through  certain  definite  and  easily  understood  processes. 
These  are:  First,  the  association  of  persons  for  a  common 
purpose;  second,  the  direction  of  the  minds  of  these  persons 
toward  certain  stimulating  ideas  and  ideals;  and,  third,  the 
controlled  development  of  the  emotions  of  this  group  in 
the  directions  desirable  for  their  growth  as  religious  per- 
sons. The  whole  purpose  is  that  men  and  women  together 
may  be  lifted  in  thought  and  feeling  in  order  that  they  may 
desire  and  love,  that  they  may  will  and  realize  finer,  richer, 
more  Godlike  lives  and  service  in  a  wider,  richer  world. 

GROWTH  BY  ASSOCIATION 

The  first  step  in  religious  education  by  worship  is  the 
association  of  persons  for  a  common  purpose.  "The 
assembling  of  yourselves"  has  an  educational  sanction. 
Two  people  associated  are  never  the  same  as  they  were  when 
separate  or  as  they  would  have  been  remaining  separate. 
The  parts  of  a  crowd  are  never  the  same  in  the  crowd  as  they 
are  alone.*  The  very  fact  of  gathering  in  a  social  group 
moves  the  feeling,  enriches  and  widens  the  sympathies  and 
the  view  of  life.  The  public  assembly  for  worship  lifts  men 
out  of  the  individual  and  solitary  into  the  social  and  uni- 
versal. The  group  becomes  conscious  of  a  common  purpose, 
and  the  fact  of  the  common  purpose  enliances  its  meaning 
and  value.  This  is  the  answer  to  the  man  who  says  he  wor- 
ships best  when  alone.  The  consciousness  of  spiritual  reality 
is  possible  to  the  individual  when  alone.  But  if  the  experi- 
ence is  real  it  becomes  at  once  a  social  experience;  he  as  a 

*  For  a  simple  statement  of  crowd  psychology,  see  George  A.  Coe  in 
Psychology  of  Religion^  p.  120.  For  further  study,  see  Le  Bon,  The 
Crowd,  chap.  IV, 


58       THE  FUNCTION  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

person,  a  spiritual  being,  is  with  his  God,  his  Father,  the 
Father  of  spirits.  But  in  the  church  service  where  worship 
is  a  reaHty  he  is  with  the  larger  family.  His  own  realiza- 
tion is  quickened  by  the  fact  that  this  spiritual  communion 
is  a  reality  to  so  many  others.  Worship  is,  then,  in  the 
church,  first,  an  act  of  the  social  consciousness  of  spiritual 
reality.  It  would  appear  that  the  ideal  church  service  would 
emphasize  this  social  communion  on  the  spiritual  plane  and 
that  every  church  service  of  worship  might  be  tested  by  its 
mediation  of  divine  fellowship  and  communion  to  us.* 

We  do  well  to  keep  in  mind  the  special  power  of  public 
worship  through  the  force  of  social  idealization.  The  educa- 
tional purpose  begins  in  gathering  the  group  for  the  expres- 
sion of  its  common  social  relationships.  It  is  carried  for- 
ward as  the  group  realizes  its  unity  as  one  family  having  one 
spiritual,  social  life  by  which  it  is  one  with  God,  a  life  that 
makes  all  living  divine,  all  relationships  sacred,  and  all  work 
worship.  The  effect  of  such  social  worship  is  both  to  create 
the  new  society  of  God's  family  and  to  train  men  for  its  life 
everywhere.  The  question  that  is  sure  to  arise — Shall  we 
then  abandon  the  sermon  from  this  service? — ^will  be  con- 
sidered in  the  section  on  teaching.  Just  now  we  are  empha- 
sizing the  primary  purpose  of  public  worship  which  is  real- 
ized by  the  very  act  of  organizing  a  social  group  for  that 
purpose. 

The  physical  conditions  will  be  such  as  to  interpret  or 
suggest  the  special  social  significance  of  the  gathering. 
Evidently,  the  room  must  be  more  than  an  auditorium,  a 

*  It  may  be  worth  while  to  note  that  these  chapters  were  written 
before  Professor  Coe's  inspiring  treatment  of  the  theme  appeared  in  A 
Social  Theory  of  Religious  Education. 


ORGANIZING  THE  SOCIAL  MIND  59 

place  designed  primarily  in  order  that  with  ease  and  com- 
fort we  may  hear  some  one  person  speak;  it  must  hter- 
ally  be  a  meeting-place.  The  form,  arrangement,  seating, 
lighting,  and  adornment  ought  to  express  clearly  the  domi- 
nant purpose,  that  many  might  become  one  in  the  feeling, 
thought,  and  attitude  of  fellowship  and  communion.*  Here 
for  a  while  they  gather  in  the  reality  and  explicit  form  of 
relationships  that  are  held  as  ideal  and  implicit  in  all  life,  the 
relationships  of  the  one  family  of  God.  This  is  not  a  listen- 
ing group,  pulpit-centric;  it  is  more  like  a  family  group. 
Its  unity  is  not  through  lines  of  interest  converging  on  a 
common  centre,  the  preacher,  but  through  ties  of  a  com- 
mon relationship  in  the  spiritual  life.  Is  anything  more 
needed  to-day  than  that  we  shall  feel  deeply  and  be  controlled 
in  all  life  by  the  reality  of  our  unity,  love,  and  obligations  as 
the  common  family  of  God?  \^Tiere  there  is  a  vital  social 
reality  in  worship  it  will  carry  over  into  all  social  life.  If 
on  these  special  occasions  men  meet  in  conscious  spiritual 
unity,  those  relationships  become  dominant  in  daily  life. 
They  are  both  stimulated  and  habituated  toward  the  main- 
tenance of  those  relations  in  every-day  life.  In  the  deepen- 
ing realization  of  spiritual  fellowship  men  do  truly  worship 
God,  for,  as  they  love  their  brethren  they  become  like  him, 
they  glorify  him  by  knowing  and  loving  one  another. 

ORGANIZING  THE  SOCIAL  MIND 

The  second  step  of  religious  education  through  public 
worship  is  the  unifying  and  directing  of  the  minds  of  the 

*  The  Religious  Education  Association  will  send,  on  application,  a 
pamphlet  of  information  on  plans  educationally  conceived,  giving 
names  of  architects  and  references  to  books. 


60      THE  FUNCTION  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

persons  in  the  group  toward  stimulating  ideas  and  ideals. 
We  might  call  this  the  organization  of  the  many  and  varied 
stimuli  of  loorship.  These  stimuli  operate  here  precisely  as 
they  do  under  other  conditions  in  life.  Ideas  come  to  us 
through  the  nerves,  through  eyes  and  ears,  by  touch  and 
odor,  through  colors  and  forms,  through  words  in  print, 
spoken  or  sung.  The  ideas  thus  received  stir  the  feelings, 
quicken  the  imagination,  find  relations  to  other  ideas,  and 
stimulate  us  to  action.  They  excite  feelings,  pleasurable  or 
otherwise,  and  they  move  us  either  toward  or  from  the  ac- 
tions suggested. 

Essentially,  this  is  teaching,  for  this  process  is  the  very 
centre  of  the  teacher's  task.  The  aim  in  teaching  is  to  so 
stimulate  the  mind  as  to  secure  a  reaction  in  feeling,  judg- 
ment, conviction,  and  action.  The  main  consideration  is 
that  the  stimulus,  whatever  it  may  be,  shall  lead  to  the 
appropriate  and  desired  action.  The  movement  toward 
action  is  all  that  the  persons  stimulated  need  to  recognize. 
No  teaching  is  teaching  that  does  not  carry  over  to  the 
pupil's  life  of  action. 

The  direction  of  worship  is  a  most  serious  responsibility: 
it  involves  the  power  to  play  on  the  very  springs  of  life,  to 
control  emotions,  and  to  color  the  judgment  of  many.  It 
calls  for  a  high  sense  of  responsibility.  Its  possibilities 
should  make  any  man  pause.  In  ignorance,  with  excellent 
intentions,  he  may  do  irreparable  damage  to  lives.  One 
must  know  what  he  is  doing.  He  must  know  how  the  emo- 
tions are  stimulated,  how  the  will  is  directed  and  strength- 
ened. He  must  know  to  what  ends  he  would  direct  every 
dynamic  of  action. 

He  who  leads  in  worship  is  doing  much  more  than  direct- 


THE  POWER  OF  THE  CONCRETE     61 

ing  a  performance.  He  is  playing  upon  many  minds:  he 
is  stirring  imaginations,  stimulating  feelings;  he  is  turning 
the  hearts  of  his  people  toward  God  until  they  all  have  one 
heart  and  one  mind.  In  order  that  he  may  do  this  he  must 
examine  with  care  every  part  of  the  service.  He  must  de- 
termine the  purpose  and  the  power  of  every  act  of  the  wor- 
shippers, and  every  influence  that  comes  upon  them.  No 
part  may  be  perfunctorily  adopted  or  thoughtlessly  done. 

THE  POWTER  OF  THE  CONCRETE 

To  be  explicit:  every  leader  of  worship  ought  to  stop  to 
examine  the  values,  for  worship  purposes,  of  a  picture,  a 
stained-glass  window^  or  an  altar-cloth.  He  ought  to  study 
the  general  effect  of  interior  arrangements  and  decorations. 
All  tliat  appeals  to  the  eye  constitutes  forms  of  very  active 
stimulation.  We  tend  to  forget  this  and  imagine  that  ed- 
ucation is  effected  only  through  the  ear.  This  is  far  from 
being  the  case  with  children.  They  hear  relatively  little; 
they  see  much  and,  although  habits  of  minute  and  detailed 
observation  may  not  have  been  established,  the  saUent  im- 
pressions of  objects  are  very  vivid.  With  the  adult,  condi- 
tions of  worship  depend  less  on  concrete  enviroimient,  the 
things  felt  and  seen,  than  with  children.  But  the  effect  of 
visible  objects  is  very  direct  and  often  lasting.  This  should 
suggest  the  wisdom  of  object-and-sense-teaching  through 
architecture,  picture,  color,  and  form  especially  designed, 
not  to  meet  the  captious  criteria  of  adult  art  forms,  but  to 
satisfy  youth's  need  of  religious  stimulation  and  direction. 
And  here  the  guiding  question  would  be.  To  what  forms  of 
action  does  the  feeling  of  this  picture  or  form  ultimately 
lead?    It  is  evident  that  no  precise  formulae  can  be  given. 


62      THE  FUNCTION  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

We  do  not  know  that  if  one  sees  one  kind  of  picture  lie  will 
at  once  go  out  and  do  one  specific  act,  or  that  another  art 
form  will  lead  to  some  other  act.  But  we  do  know  that  cer- 
tain colors,  forms,  harmonies,  and  other  visual  appeals  tend 
to  make  one  feel  that  life  is  beautiful  and  that  we  must  keep 
it  so,  that  certain  ways  of  living — ^liarmoniously,  calmly, 
patiently — are  desirable,  and  that  therefore  we  must  seek 
those  ways. 

How  steadily,  forcibly,  loudly  do  things  preach  to  the 
young  while  words  fall  unheeded  I  Is  it  not  worth  while  to 
catch  some  sense  of  the  value  of  the  sermon  that  is  not 
spoken  but  is  felt  and  seen?  It  is  no  small  element  in 
worship  for  all.  It  lies  in  order,  harmony,  serenity  of  action, 
cleanliness,  beauty  of  form  and  color.  It  lies  as  much  in 
the  manner  in  which  things  are  done  as  in  the  fixed  colors 
and  shapes  about  them.  It  lies  within  the  chapel  and  meet- 
ing-house as  well  as  in  the  cathedral.  The  character  of 
religion  to  many  is  mediated  through  the  concrete,  through 
that  which  most  immediately  strikes  the  senses.  And  for 
every  one  these  appeals  to  eye  and  other  senses  co-operate 
to  form  the  complete  impression.  We  cannot  afford  to  al- 
low anything  that  w^ould  lessen  or  detract  to  have  a  place 
here.  Every  form  of  impression  must  be  made  to  co-operate 
and  to  serve  the  ultimate  purpose  of  the  service  of  worship.* 

IVIUSIC 

So  much  attention  has  been  given  to  the  concrete  prin- 
cipally because  it  is  the  aspect  of  worship  most  commonly 

*  There  are  valuable  suggestions  in  the  papers  by  Ralph  A.  Cram, 
James  S.  Pray,  and  Waldo  S.  Pratt,  in  The  Aims  of  Religious  Education 
(The  Religious  Education  Association,  1905).    The  one  consideration, 


MUSIC  63 

slighted.  This  emphasis  will  serve  to  indicate  the  care 
with  which  each  part  of  worship  must  be  studied.  It 
seems  almost  unnecessary  to  plead  for  loyalty  to  educational 
principles  in  the  choice  of  the  hymns.  But  in  many  ser- 
vices it  is  evident  that  if  the  hymns  have  been  chosen  at 
all,  no  principle  has  been  followed  in  their  selection.  Sing- 
ing together  should  be  thinking,  feeling,  and  aspiring  to- 
gether. Often  it  should  be  both  social  aspiration  and 
determination.  How  important,  then,  that  the  leader 
shall  select  the  sentiments  he  desires  to  see  developed!  We 
can  all  remember  with  ease  more  hymns  than  sermons. 
This  is  due  not  alone  to  repetition  but  also  to  the  poetic 
form  of  the  hymn,  the  musical  setting,  and  the  fact  of  singing 
as  a  social  exercise. 

The  literary  form  of  the  hymn  may  have  as  great  an 
influence  as  its  thought.  Aspiration  demands  the  best. 
The  sentiment  that  ennobles  must  have  associations  of 
elevating  language.  Doggerel  and  slang  may  have  apparent 
advantages  in  their  every-day  familiarity  for  some  people, 
but  such  associations  of  thought  and  custom  hinder  more 
than  they  help.  If  the  life  is  to  move  forward  it  needs  the 
associations  of  higher  levels.  The  exercise  of  worship  must 
lead  the  spirit  to  reach  up. 

So  with  every  part  of  the  worship.  All  are  parts  of 
a  common  purpose.  Whatever  it  be — reading,  responses, 
hymns,  chants,  prayers,  or  offering — these  persons  who  par- 
ticipate are  not  the  same  as  they  were  before.  Something 
has  happened  in  them.    Worship  is  possible  only  when  the 

whether  in  designing  a  new  building  or  improving  an  old  one,  should  be 
that  every  part  shall  express  a  religious  purpose  and  all  parts  shall 
unite  in  this  expression, 


64      THE  FUNCTION  OF  PUBLIC  WORSHIP 

parts  of  a  service  are  directed  and  unified  to  secure  certain 
results  in  persons  and  when  those  results  turn  men  toward 
God,  toward  doing  his  will,  and  lead  them  in  the  direction 
of  his  law.  It  is  worship  whenever  we  yield  ourselves  to 
persuasions,  feelings,  and  aspirations  that  both  make  us 
long  after  godliness  and  cause  us  to  stretch  forth  ourselves 
in  doing  the  will  of  the  Most  High. 

GUroANCE  TOWARD  A  GOAL 

If  the  leader  of  worship  is  loyal  to  the  educational  ideal 
he  will  seek  to  control  the  minds  and  emotions  of  the  group 
toward  certain  definite  e?ids.  Every  part  of  the  service  will 
be  chosen  as  a  part  of  a  real  purpose.  The  leader  leads 
somewhere.  He  must  have  an  aim  clearly  defined.  The 
emotional  stimulus  of  worship  must  be  purposeful  and  not 
an  end  in  itself.  There  is  a  common  tendency  to  think  of 
worship  simply  as  a  state  of  feeling,  without  regard  to  any 
further  end.  Emotion  as  an  end  in  itself  soon  fails;  its 
powers  of  response  are  deadened;  it  dies  for  lack  of  ex- 
pression in  action.  The  emotions  can  never  be  used  wisely 
unless  they  are  directed  toward  right  ends.  If  an  emo- 
tional state  is  regarded  as  the  desired  end,  the  stimulus  will 
be  chosen  with  reference  to  that  end  alone.  The  process 
will  end  in  itself  and  no  progress  will  be  made. 

To  take  a  simple  instance,  in  selecting  a  hymn  or  in  direct- 
ing its  singing  in  worship  what  should  be  considered— the 
kinds  of  feelings  likely  to  be  quickened  or  created  by  the 
hymn  or  the  kinds  of  things  those  who  sing  are  likely  to  do, 
or  to  do  more  or  do  better  through  this  singing?  Many 
hymns  are  selected  for  worship  without  either  question  being 
asked  and  there  is  no  special  intent  or  consideration  of  values 


GUIDANCE  TOWARD  A  GOAL  65 

in  the  selection.  But,  if  there  is  definite  intent,  the  answer 
would  be  that  both  questions  must  be  asked,  but  that  the 
first  inevitably  leads  to  the  second — ^What  sort  of  actions 
will  follow  the  feelings  stimulated  by  this  hymn  ?  Therefore 
each  hymn  will  be  chosen  with  the  goal  of  life  in  mind. 

In  worship  the  minister  is  leading  his  people  toward  the 
life  of  a  divine  society.  He  has  in  mind  not  only  what  they 
will  think  and  how  they  feel  but  Vvhat  they  will  do  about  it 
all.  He  is  educating  them  in  the  degree  that  he  is  leading 
out  their  lives.  The  test  of  worship  is  in  work  in  the  every- 
day world.  Worship  makes  the  world.  Moving  men  toward 
God  is  moving  all  life  toward  the  divine  ideal. 

This  is  what  the  minister  of  the  church  is  seeking  to  do  In 
the  service  of  worship.  He  is  the  "master  of  assemblies," 
not  as  one  who  merely  manages  a  number  of  separate  parts 
but  who  organizes  the  unified  social  life  before  him.  He 
leads  the  assembly  as  a  unit.  He  stimulates  them  all  In 
order  that  all,  as  a  whole,  may  produce  more  life  in  each 
and  in  all.  He  is  developing  lives.  The  function  of  worship 
is  realized  in  the  educational  process  of  the  development 
of  lives  by  the  interplay  and  reaction  of  vital  powers. 
Worship  becomes  a  means;  the  end  sought  is  worth,  that  is, 
more  worthy  men  and  women,  because  they  have  meditated 
upon,  they  have  communed  with,  they  have  felt  and  seen, 
the  invisible. 

REFERENCES 

Hartshorne,  Hugh,  Worship  in  the  Sunday  School  (Teachers  College, 

1913). 
HoYT,  A.  S.,  Public  Worship  for  Non-Liturgical  Churches  (Doran,  1911). 
Hylan,  John  P.,  Public  Worship  (Open  Court,  1901).    A  psychological 

study  on  a  questionnaire  basis. 


CHAPTER  VI 
CONGREGATIONAL  TEACHING  * 

Teaching  Is  the  act  of  stimulating  the  feelings,  guiding 
the  perception,  convincing  the  judgment,  and  moving  the 
will  so  as  to  produce  a  desired  action.  In  our  practical  use 
of  the  word  we  tend  to  confine  this  process  to  the  worker 
or  the  teacher  who  stands  before  a  class.  That  always  has 
been  one  of  the  most  eflBcient  forms  of  teaching  in  the  church. 
The  earliest  congregations  seem  to  have  used  that  method 
for  the  instruction  of  the  young. f  The  modern  church  pro- 
vides, on  Sundays  and  on  other  occasions,  for  teaching  small 
groups.  One  cannot  overemphasize  the  importance  of  this 
work.  But  a  detailed  study  of  class  teaching  in  the  church 
belongs  to  those  works  which  treat  of  church-school  meth- 
ods. We  seek  here  to  call  attention  to  the  opportunities 
of  teaching  in  the  church  service  of  worship.  Not  all  the 
teaching  work  of  the  church  is  done  in  its  classes.  We 
have  seen  already  that  it  is  going  on  in  associated  worship; 
we  shall  see  that  it  is  being  effected  through  play  and  or- 
ganized activity,  and  we  know  that  the  voice  of  the  true 
preacher  is  the  voice  of  a  teacher. 

*  In  this  chapter  attention  is  confined  to  the  ministry  of  teaching 
in  relation  to  worship.  In  Chapter  XV  the  needs  of  young  people  are 
considered,  and  in  Chapters  XIX  and  XX  some  attention  is  paid  to  the 
ministry  of  teaching  through  classes  and  like  organizations. 

t  On  the  history  of  teaching  in  the  church,  see  the  author's  Evolution 
of  the  Sunday  School,  1911. 

66 


TEACHING  BY  PREACHING  67 

TEACHING  BY  PREACHING 

At  its  best,  preaching  is  prophesying.  The  minister  In  the 
pulpit  stands  in  the  order  of  all  those  who  have  stood  in 
the  splendid  hght  of  glowing  vision  and  called  men  to  the 
light.  The  prophets  are  they  who  reach  our  consciences, 
who  quicken  our  purposes,  who  make  us  lift  our  dull  eyes  to 
see  truth  and  God.  Prophesying  is  teaching  at  its  best. 
It  is  not  prediction — it  is  declaration — it  is  the  declaration  of 
the  divine  directed  to  the  consciences  and  conduct  of  men. 
It  seeks,  not  to  satisfy  puerile  curiosity  regarding  the  fu- 
ture, but  to  determine  the  future  by  stimulating  and  guiding 
the  lives  of  men.  The  prophet  is  one  who  sees  what  ought 
to  be,  who  feels  that  divine  imperative,  and  who  seeks  to 
make  it  real  by  declaring  it. 

The  minister  of  the  church  is  its  educational  leader,  for 
his  chief  function  is  that  of  prophetic  leadership.  He  directs 
the  organization  of  the  whole  in  order  that  it  may  co-operate 
with  the  purpose  he  declares  in  his  teaching,  the  doing  of 
the  will  of  God  in  the  ways  of  men.  He  is  the  chief  teacher, 
for  he  must  interpret  this  whole  purpose  to  all,  he  must 
quicken  tlieir  feeUngs  so  that  it  becomes  desirable;  he 
must  persuade  their  minds  so  that  it  is  clear;  he  must  direct 
their  wills  so  that  this  programme  becomes  theirs  in  choice 
and  practice. 

Preaching  is  teaching.  Its  aims  are  vastly  higher  than 
those  of  entertaimnent.  The  full  significance  of  the  teach- 
ing function  must  be  restored  to  the  work  of  preaching. 
Preaching  must  be  redeemed  from  its  debasing  competition 
with  the  arts  of  amusement  or  entertainment.  The  pulpit 
cannot  afford  any  longer  to  cater  to  those  thrifty  souls  who 


68  CONGREGATIONAL  TEACHING 

do  not  think  of  buying  a  seat  at  an  entertainment  house  so 
long  as  they  can  get  what  they  Hke  for  nothing  at  the  church. 
By  lasting  insistence  on  greater  aims  and  responsibilities 
we  must  free  ourselves  from  the  custom  of  engaging  the  leader 
of  the  whole  life  of  the  church  on  the  basis  of  his  ability  to 
draw  the  crowd  and  to  entertain  the  otherwise  indifferent 
masses. 

Preaching  is  teaching.  It  is  vastly  greater  and  finer  than 
the  dissemination  of  knowledge.  The  preacher  must  know 
and  the  people  must  learn;  but  the  ability  to  put  informa- 
tion into  alluring  language  does  not  of  itself  make  the 
teacher.  Of  course  the  knowledge  must  be  there — nothing 
can  be  accomplished  without  it.  It  is  the  essential  means; 
but  it  is  only  the  means.  Preaching  that  is  merely  informa- 
tional will  not  be  transformational,  but  preaching  never 
will  transform  unless  it  informs.  The  teacher  uses  knowledge 
as  a  means.  It  is  his  tool  and  not  his  product.  He  is  not 
proud  of  his  learning,  though  he  justly  may  be  proud  of  its 
effects  in  the  lives  of  those  whom  he  teaches. 

LEARNING  TO  TEACH 

Preaching  is  teaching  because  it  is  founded  on  fundamental 
educational  processes.  It  is  proclamation,  declaration,  and 
information  for  the  purposes  of  stimulation,  transformation, 
and  action.  Any  one  who  would  preach  must  know  some- 
thing of  these  processes — he  must  know  what  takes  place  in 
the  minds  and  wills  of  those  who  hear.  It  scarcely  seems 
necessary  to-day  to  insist  that  the  preacher  ought  to  know 
not  only  how  sermons  are  prepared  but  also  what  happens 
as  the  sermon  goes  out  to  the  hearers.  How  else  can  he  in- 
telligently prepare?    He  plays  upon  the  human  instrument; 


THE  CALL  FOR  THE  TEACHER  69 

he  will  be  a  guilty  bungler,  committing  it  may  be  fatal 
errors,  if  he  be  ignorant  of  the  laws  of  that  instrument. 
Those  who  decry  or  deride  the  study  of  psychology  for  the 
minister  simply  assert  that  the  workman  does  better  when  he 
knows  nothing  of  either  his  tools  or  his  materials.  It  takes 
time  and  it  costs  labor  to  know  this  material  of  personality 
— ^to  understand  its  processes  and  to  become  master  of  its 
ways.  It  is  much  easier  to  make  sermons  than  it  is  to  know 
souls.  But  your  sermon  is  wasted  if  you  do  not  know 
how  to  find  the  way  to  the  souls  of  men.  Does  some  one 
say  that  Savonarola,  Finney,  Beecher,  and  Moody  knew 
nothing  of  psychology?  Then  some  one  is  wrong.  They 
certainly  knew  much;  they  learned  in  the  schools  that  were 
open  to  them.  They  studied  men.  They  were  keen  ob- 
servers of  lives.  We  can  be  sure  were  they  living  they  would 
take  advantage  of  every  source  of  knowledge  now  open  to 
them,  and  they  would  accept  the  help  of  every  patient 
investigator  into  the  laws  of  this  Hfe  of  consciousness. 

He  who  would  be  a  teacher  must  be  willing  to  pay  the 
teacher's  price.  A  teacher  is  not  alone  one  who  learns  a 
lesson;  he  must  be  one  who  learns  lives.  Life  is  the  material 
in  which  he  works.  All  learning  and  literature  he  uses,  but 
by  means  of  them  he  makes  life. 

THE  CALL  FOR  THE  TEACHER 

True  preaching  is  teaching  that  commands  the  place  of 
the  prophet.  He  is  a  preacher  w^ho  wakes  men  and  stirs 
them  to  discover  their  spiritual  rights  and  their  spiritual 
opportunities.  The  preaching  that  drives  a  man  out  to 
do  something  for  the  vision  he  has  seen  leaves  him  no  time 
to  analyze  aesthetic  reactions,  to  determine  whether  he  was 


70  COxNGREGATIONAL  TEACHING 

pleased  or  whether  the  sermon  was  a  credit  to  that  church. 
It  cures  a  church  of  the  entertainment  delusion.  Preaching 
that  is  educationally  efficient  produces  effects.  It  causes 
men  to  do.  And  that  is  what  men  hunger  for  to-day.  They 
seek  the  stimulus  of  life.  They  see  ghmpses  of  a  glorious 
vision  through  the  rifts  in  clouds  of  oratory.  Their  hearts 
hunger  for  its  reaHzation;  their  hands  are  lifted  to  its  work, 
and,  alas,  there  the  matter  ends,  for  there  the  sermon  ends. 
The  preaching  stopped  short  of  teaching  because  it  had 
no  terminus  in  life  or  in  realization.  The  preacher  who  has 
seen  a  vision  should  also  know  how  to  make  men  both  see 
and  realize  it. 

This,  then,  is  the  preacher's  teaching  function:  that  men, 
as  spiritual  beings,  may  know  and  do  the  truth,  that  they 
may  discover  and  realize  the  full  riches  of  the  spiritual  life, 
and  that  they  may  seek  to  have  all  the  world  experience 
that  life.  He  is  to  lead  lives  into  the  experience  of  the  family 
of  God.  This  is  the  peculiar  function  of  the  preacher;  he 
is  the  one  recognized  teacher  and  specialist  in  religion.  To 
him  men  are  still  looking  for  the  word  regarding  God. 
What  shall  we  think  of  him,  and  where  shall  we  find  him  ? 
Is  he  the  Jahveh  of  olden  days,  the  mighty  thunderer  who 
seems  blindly  to  blast  the  forest-oaks  and  devastate  our 
little  crops  ?  Is  he  some  far-off  potentate,  the  one  king  re- 
maining when  all  other  kings  pass  into  history?  The  men 
who  speak  about  God  wait  for  the  teacher  in  the  church  to 
answer  their  questions.  The  men  who  do  not  speak  of  God, 
who  shrink  from  the  popular  interpretations  of  the  word, 
who  say  there  is  no  God  as  they  would  say  "there  are  no 
gods,''  still  look  for  one  who  will  reveal  God.  They  seek  an 
answer  to  questions  which  are  fundamentally  the  same  as 


THE  CALL  FOR  THE  TEACHER  71 

those  of  the  other  group:  What  is  the  meaning  of  life? 
Who  will  show  us  its  plan  and  help  us  find  its  lasting 
values  ? 

The  'preacher  is  the  teacher  of  righteousness.  Life  is  all 
school  to  living  men  and  each  day's  experience  brings  its 
new  problems.  In  the  pressure  of  the  business  world  it  is 
easy  to  forget  some  of  the  essential  factors.  We  are  likely 
to  seek  solutions  only  in  the  light  of  economics  and  politics 
and  forget  that  man  is  more  than  the  things  he  has.  The 
teacher  must  so  insistently  bring  to  us  the  reality  of  the 
spiritual  in  every  fact  of  life  that  we  shall  never  forget  it. 
The  minister  so  teaches  life  that  we  habitually  think  of  it 
not  merely  as  a  wage-earning,  house-dwelling  aiBPair,  but  as 
something  primarily  possessing  eternal  worths.  This  teacher 
has  to  save  us  from  absorption  in  barn-building  and  keep 
us  from  losing  ourselves  in  our  things.  He  has  to  inter- 
pret this  daily  life  of  affairs  in  the  light  of  all  affairs  and 
all  days.    He  must  set  the  eternal  in  our  hearts. 

Do  these  needs  not  call  for  a  teacher?  And  how  shall 
one  teach  in  the  face  of  such  needs  who  is  unwilling  to  learn 
the  laws  of  teaching?  The  orator  may  be  born,  but  the 
teacher  must  be  trained.  The  greater  the  responsibility 
of  the  teacher  the  greater  the  need  for  training.  The  pro- 
fessional schools  for  the  ministry  are  recognizing  this  need. 
They  are  specializing  in  scientific  knowledge  in  this  field 
and  they  are  offering  courses  in  the  different  technical  aspects 
of  religious  education.*  For  those  who  are  already  engaged 
in   their   professional    work,    reading   and   correspondence 

*  For  a  survey  of  the  work  available  in  theological  seminaries,  see 
thearticle  by  Frank  G.  Ward  in  Religious  Education  for  October,  1915, 
at  p.  426. 


72  CONGREGATIONAL  TEACHING 

courses  are  available.*  Something  much  more  rigorous 
than  desultory  reading  will  be  necessary.  They  who  would 
teach  must  pay  the  high  price  of  patient,  painstaking  learn- 
ing. 

RELATION  TO  WORSHIP 

There  is  no  fixed  line  between  the  function  of  worship  and 
that  of  teaching.  True  worship  teaches,  true  teaching  stimu- 
lates worship.  The  sermon  that  teaches  is  a  proper  and 
essential  part  of  the  service  of  worship.  This  unity  is  quite 
fundamental.  The  sermon  is  more  than  an  intellectual 
exercise  and  the  service  is  more  than  an  emotional  experi- 
ence. Both  should  have  both  elements;  both  are  essentially 
educational  experiences,  leading  to  action  and  life.  It  is  a 
serious  mistake  to  speak,  as  we  sometimes  do,  of  worship  as 
''opening  exercises,"  evidently  regarding  them  as  a  vestibule 
to  the  intellectual  mansion,  the  sermon. 

But  some  one  says  the  sermon  is  the  means  for  the  im- 
partation  of  ideas.  That  is  precisely  the  trouble  with 
many  sermons;  at  least  there  are  two  kinds  of  sermons- 
that  miss  fire — those  that  are  not  troubled  with  ideas  and 
those  that  are  nothing  but  ideas.  We  have  been  insisting 
that  the  sermon  teaches  only  as  it  does  much  more  than 
impart  knowledge.  It  is  efficient  as  it  is  essentially  a  part 
of  the  whole  service  of  worship.  It  must  be  directed  to  the 
same  end  as  the  prayer  and  reading  and  singing.  It  is  to 
be  judged  by  its  power  in  stimulating  persons  to  know  and 
feel  and  act.  In  all  the  public  services,  including  the  ser- 
mon, the  leader  must  be  considering  what  is  taking  place 

*The  American  Institute  of  Sacred  Literature  offers  an  especially 
good  course  for  ministers.  The  Religious  Education  Association, 
Chicago,  will  send,  free,  Hsts  of  books. 


RELATIOx\  TO  WORSHIP  73 

in  the  minds  of  the  people.  And  not  only  what  changes 
take  place  in  the  ideas  of  the  hearers,  but  what  changes 
take  place  in  them,  in  their  whole  selves.  How  are  they 
different?  What  changes  have  occm-red  in  their  feelings, 
their  ideas,  their  judgments,  their  will,  and  their  actions  ? 

We  tend  to  think  of  the  earlier  Christian  congregations  as 
gatherings  about  the  personality  of  an  apostle  with  a  burn- 
ing message.  That  was  true  only  of  the  first  public  assem- 
blages. The  regular  gatherings  of  believers,  in  houses,  barns, 
or  catacombs,  were  bound  together  by  the  ties  of  a  new  social 
life.  They  meant  something  wonderful,  new,  and  refreshing 
when  they  said  "Brother"  and  "Sister."  They  met  under 
the  power  of  the  new  ideals  of  a  common  family,  a  new  so- 
ciety. Our  emphasis  on  preaching,  which  has  led  to  the 
currency  of  the  phrase  "church  auditorium,"  has  over- 
shadow^ed  the  greater,  dominant  purpose  of  social  worship. 
It  has  succeeded  in  obscuring  the  idea  of  the  Christian  family 
in  its  assembly.  It  accounts  for  the  very  common  phrase 
descriptive  of  all  public  services  as  "preaching  services." 
The  result  is  that  many  come,  not  to  worship  in  the  joy  of  an 
ideal  social  life  that  looks  in  love  to  a  Father's  face,  but  to 
listen  to  an  address.  Naturally,  they  demand  that  the 
address  shall  be  entertaining;  if  it  is  not  they  will  turn  to 
another  and  more  attractive  orator  elsewhere. 

The  professional  training  of  the  minister  of  religion  is 
partly  responsible  for  the  overshadowing  of  worship  by  ora- 
tory. In  many  schools  he  is  still  taught  that  the  first  great 
duty  before  him  is  to  be  a  preacher.  The  young  seminary 
student,  under  this  instruction  and  under  the  traditions  of 
the  school,  cherishes  the  hope  of  being  the  "star  preacher" 
of  his  class.     Pulpit  eloquence  is  what  the  people  want,  and 


74  CONGREGATIONAL  TEACHING 

the  preacher  is  trained  to  meet  the  demand.  But,  unfortu- 
nately, the  demand  dictates  the  nature  of  the  supply.  The 
people  crave  the  pleasing  sensations  of  oratory.  The  elo- 
quence that  entertains  and  thrills  becomes  an  end  in  itself. 
The  teaching  purpose  is  forgotten  in  the  oratorical  process. 
Worship  degenerates  from  the  educational  direction  of  a 
social  group  toward  developing  ideals  and  experiences  into 
the  elaboration  of  a  verbal  masterpiece  framed  in  the  acces- 
sories of  prayer  and  hymns. 

THE  MINISTRY  OF  PREACHING 

But  there  is  a  reason  for  the  dominance  of  the  sermon 
which  goes  back  of  the  current  customs  of  professional 
training  for  the  ministry.  It  lies  in  the  fact  that  there  is  a 
ministry  of  preaching,  that  the  spoken  word  is  still  to  some 
degree  the  most  effective  method  of  disseminating  knowledge, 
of  declaring  the  good  news,  and  that  the  will,  judgments, 
and  feelings  are  reached  by  this  means.  We  cannot  forget 
the  place  of  preaching  in  the  early  spread  of  Christianity, 
nor  its  place  in  the  growth  of  modern  churches  and  in  our 
own  religious  experience. 

Two  considerations  are  to  be  borne  in  mind.  First:  That 
preaching  and  worship  may  be  one  and  the  same,  but  that 
the  special  method  of  the  former  must  not  be  permitted  to 
change  the  nature  of  the  latter.  Preaching  is  only  a  part  of 
worship.  Second :  That  to-day  the  method  of  preaching 
does  not  hold  quite  the  same  place  as  in  the  past.  The 
spoken  word  is  not  the  only  method  of  disseminating  truth. 
The  time  was  when,  for  nearly  all  the  people,  all  knowledge 
came  by  the  spoken  word — readers  were  few  and  books  were 
fewer.    The  man  who  passed  the  week  with  little  or  no 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  PREACHING  75 

intellectual  or  emotional  food  came  with  keen  appetite  for 
the  Sunday^s  long  sermons.  To-day  all  those  who  read, 
who  do  more  than  expose  themselves  to  the  newspaper  head- 
lines, are  being  preached  to  daily  by  the  hour  through  books, 
pamphlets,  magazines,  even  by  moving  pictures  and  the 
drama.  Not  all  this  preaching  is  spiritual,  though  more  of  it 
may  have  this  quality  than  we  suspect;  but  in  any  case  it  is 
all  preaching,  proclaiming,  stimulating  the  mind  and  feel- 
ings. It  is  thus  tending  to  make  the  sermon  not  only  an 
additional  burden,  an  offering  to  a  surfeited  mind,  but  also 
to  make  the  sermon  less  necessary.  Our  sole  dependence  is 
no  longer  on  this  mode  of  reaching  the  mind. 

Shall  we  then  abandon  the  sermon  and  leave  the  teach- 
ing function  to  classes  and  to  the  printed  page?  By  no 
means.  We  still  need  that  prophetic  teaching  which  is 
possible  only  with  the  large  assemblage.  Preaching  is 
teaching  a  class  which  has  been  lifted,  prepared,  and  stimu- 
lated by  its  social  worship.  It  is  instruction  lifted  to  its 
higher  power  by  the  social  life  of  the  assemblage.  The  one 
way  to  meet  the  competition  of  the  printed  page  is  to  give 
to  this  preaching  the  qualities  which  cold  type  cannot  have. 
The  sermon  is  teaching  at  its  best,  because  it  presents  a  per- 
son to  persons.  The  man  and  the  message  are  one  in  teach- 
ing men. 

The  special  function  of  preaching  is  that  of  unifying  and 
directing  worship:  controlling  and  directing  the  emotions 
of  the  group  for  the  ultimate  ends  of  worship.  Preaching 
presents  a  focal  point  for  all  the  emotions.  As  the  service 
and  the  environment  stimulate  persons — "move"  them,  to 
use  a  current  word — ^preaching  presents  the  ends  toward 
which   they    may  move.    Here   are  multitudes,   perhaps 


76  CONGREGATIONAL  TEACHING 

deeply  stirred,  moving  as  sheep  not  having  a  shepherd, 
filled  with  desire  and  longing,  but  all  inchoate,  without 
direction.  The  sermon  carries  forward  the  work  of  worship; 
by  the  control  of  thought  it  gathers  up  all  the  flood  of  emo- 
tions and  directs  them  toward  worthy  ends.  It  takes  lives 
that  are  stimulated  and  leads  them  toward  the  reahzation 
of  their  ideals  and  so  toward  God.  This  is  worship,  in  that 
it  is  the  organization  of  the  life  of  all  toward  the  ideal  and  its 
realization.  This  is  teaching,  in  the  degree  that  it  stimulates 
lives,  that  it  leads  to  the  deeds  of  the  religious  life. 

The  service  of  worship  is  designed  to  secure  an  impressive, 
effective  realization  of  the  divine  love  and  the  divine  glory 
of  life.  It  moves  and  guides  us  toward  that  glory  as  our 
highest  good.  It  reveals  the  greatest  good  of  all  in  a  world 
of  God's  will.  It  compels  us  to  seek  this  good,  to  realize  it 
in  all  life,  in  the  conditions  and  order  of  all  life.  The  minis- 
ter, having  organized  the  service  in  order  that  all  together, 
with  the  cumulative  effect  of  the  congregation,  might  feel  the 
power  and  desirability  of  godliness,  now,  by  means  of  the 
sermon,  directs  their  feelings  and  shows  how  the  ideal  may 
be  realized.  He  focusses  and  guides  the  sum  of  social  and 
spiritual  feeling.  He  seeks  to  guide  the  emotional  content 
of  worship — the  sense  of  a  social  life,  of  difference,  of  joy  and 
elevation — so  that  it  may  have  definiteness  of  impression 
and  may  pass  over  into  reality  through  action.  Preaching 
precipitates  emotion  in  conduct  and  so  realizes  the  whole 
purpose  of  worship  in  that  the  worshipper  becomes  more 
like  him  whom  he  worships.  Men  are  changed,  not  by  what 
they  feel,  but  by  the  feeling  passing  over  into  doing,  so  that 
the  beauty  of  the  feeling  becomes  a  part  of  themselves.  So 
preaching  is  teaching,  causing  men  to  see  and  do.     It  is 


THE  MINISTRY  OF  PREACHING  77 

prophesying  as  it  reveals  God's  will  and  causes  it  to  be 
realized. 

REFERENCES 

Faunce,  W.  H.  p..  The  Educational  Ideal  in  the  Ministry  (Macmillan, 

1908). 
Mark,  Thistleton,  The  Pedagogics  of  Preaching  (Revell,  1911). 
Pepper,  G.  W.,  A  Voice  f rem  the  Crowd  (Yale  Press,  1915). 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE  FUNCTION  OF  EVANGELISM 

The  church  is  essentially  an  evangelizing  agency.  Its 
work  is  to  save  the  world.  The  full  admission  of  that  fact 
and  insistence  upon  it  in  no  way  invalidates  the  fundamental 
thesis  of  this  book.  The  educational  aim  concentrates  the 
energies  of  the  church  in  leading  men  to  the  realization  of 
the  divine  likeness  in  themselves  and  the  divine  will  in  a 
social  order.  Fully  to  do  this  is  to  save  tlie  world,  and  to 
do  anything  else  is  not  evangelism.  Any  work  which  does 
not  seek  to  bring  men  to  the  personal  fulness  and  to  the 
social  perfection  which  Jesus  taught  and  exhibited  falls 
short  of  the  work  of  evangelism. 

The  assumption  that  there  is  a  sharp  conflict  between  the 
educational  aim  and  the  evangelistic  aim  is  based  on  a  mis- 
understanding of  one  of  the  two,  usually  on  ignorance  of 
both.  But  so  common  is  this  assumption  that  it  becomes 
necessary  to  face  it  and  to  look  clearly  at  the  aims  of  educa- 
tion and  of  evangehsm.  Examination  will  convince  us  that 
when  fully  understood  they  are  both  exactly  the  same. 

THE  TWO  AIMS 

The  evangelistic  aim  seeks  the  salvation  of  all  men.  Its 
message  is  the  good  news  that  God  desires  man's  salvation 
•rom  sin  and  his  full  entrance  into  the  divine  family.  Its 
method  principally  is  the  declaration  of  this  good  news. 
The  aim  is  accomplished  when  each  man  everywhere  knows 

78 


OBJECTIONS  TO  THE  EDUCATIONAL  IDEAL     79 

himself  as  the  child  of  God  and  seeks  to  live  fully  in  the 
family  relations  implied.  The  educational  aim  seeks  the 
development  of  all  men  into  fulness  of  religious  character; 
that  is,  in  simple  terms,  the  salvation  of  all  men.  Its  method 
uses  whatever,  in  accordance  with  the  laws  under  which 
lives  grow,  will  effect  this  purpose.  The  aims  in  both  cases 
are  the  same,  except  that  education  is  more  likely  to  go  far- 
ther and  pass  from  individual  salvation  to  social  rightness. 
If  the  aims  are  the  same  and  the  methods  so  in  consonance, 
how  does  conflict  appear?  ^^^len  persons  of  different  men- 
tal habits  discuss  the  same  thing  divergencies  are  often 
more  evident  than  agreements.  "Evangelism"  is  the  slogan 
of  one  group  habituated  to  emphasize  one  aspect;  "educa- 
tion" is  the  slogan  of  another  group,  accustomed  to  think 
in  different  terms.  The  former  emphasizes  results;  the  latter 
methods.  The  former  is  likely  to  cleave  to  accepted  forms 
and  definitions;  the  latter  to  seek  out  modern  terms.  Per- 
sons of  evangelistic  fervor  and  habit  of  mind  are  ready  to 
assume  that  the  educational  method  must  be  wrong  because 
it  uses  what  is  to  them  unfamiliar  language.  But  it  is  sim- 
ply trying  to  find  terms  that  express  with  exactness,  in  the 
language  of  to-day,  just  what  really  happens  in  the  minds 
and  wills  of  men.  It  is  unwilling  to  use  plu-ases,  cherished 
for  their  past  service,  and  now  often  handled  without  clear 
consciousness  of  meaning.  It  dares  to  do  what  Jesus  did — 
forsake  traditional  forms  of  words  and  say  tilings  that  mean 
something  to  men  of  the  current  hour. 

OBJECTIONS  TO  THE  EDUCATIONAL  IDK^L 

But  the  essential  difiSculty  for  many  in  thinking  of  the 
educational  method  in  religion  lies  in  their  assumption  that 


80  THE  FUNCTION  OF  EVANGELISM 

it  deals  only  with  knowledge.  "How  can  any  one  hope," 
they  inquire,  "  that  souls  will  be  saved  by  knowledge  ?  Has 
not  the  pride  of  intellect  in  itself  always  been  a  snare  to  the 
soul  and  a  source  of  sin ? "  " ^Knowledge  puffeth  up,*"  they 
quote;  "what  men  need  is  repentance,  humility,  faith,  and 
love."  And  to  all  this  every  true  educator  will  answer  with 
a  hearty  "Amen."  For  none  knows  better  than  the  edu- 
cator the  pitfalls  of  the  intellect  and  the  fallacies  of  mere 
knowledge.  He  knows  very  well,  and  is  constantly  asserting, 
that,  though  one  knew  all  mysteries  and  had  all  knowledge, 
one  would  still  remain  an  uneducated  man  unless  he  had  love 
and  faith  and  the  real  fruits  of  the  spirit.  There  are  those 
who  adopt  the  phrases  of  religious  education  and  miss  its 
meaning.  Apparently  they  endeavor  only  to  secure  in  all 
persons  a  certain  amount  of  information  on  religious  sub- 
jects. They  seem  to  hope  to  save  the  world  by  giving  it 
lessons.  It  is  not  strange  that  all  that  seems  foreign  to  the 
evangelistic  spirit.  It  is  foreign  both  to  the  evangelistic 
ideal  and  to  educational  method.  Certainly  if  mere  schooling 
is  the  best  expression  of  the  educational  ideal  then  educa- 
tion holds  forth  no  promise  of  accomplishing  the  world's 
redemption. 

An  attempt  has  already  been  made  in  this  book  to  state 
the  meaning  of  religious  education,  and  especially  to  show 
how  far  it  reaches  beyond  the  lesson-learning  processes.  It 
has  to  do  with  lives,  with  persons,  and  with  society.*  Re- 
ligious education  is  not  the  substitution  of  knowledge  about 
religion  for  a  religious  experience;  but  it  is  essentially  a  re- 

*  Summing  up  many  definitions,  one  has  characterized  education  as 
"a  change  of  behavior  through  experience."  See  Mary  E.  Moxcey  in 
Girlhood  and  Character,  p.  47.  For  references  to  other  definitions,  see 
in  Chapter  III,  at  p.  28. 


EDUCATION  VERSUS  EVANGELISTISM       81 

ligious  experience.  It  is  that  developing  experience  of  the 
whole  universe  that  includes  God  and  the  infinite  values, 
and  under  which  persons  grow  to  the  completeness  of  their 
powers,  abihties,  and  fitness  in  the  universe.  Paul  spoke 
of  it  as  growth  from  grace  (i.  e.,  beauty  of  character)  to 
grace,  until  we  all  come  to  the  measure  of  the  fulness  of  the 
stature  of  Christ.  Does  not  Paul's  phrase  adequately  ex- 
press the  evangelistic  aim?  Not  the  less  does  it  express 
both  the  aim  and  the  method  of  religious  education. 

EDUCATION  VERSUS  EVANGELISTISM 

But,  while  we  do  insist  that  the  apparent  differences  be- 
tween education  and  evangelism  in  the  church  are  founded 
on  ignorance  and  naive  misapprehension,  we  must  also 
insist  that  there  are  real  and  fundamental  differences  be- 
tween the  popular  concepts  of  "  salvation  by  evangelism"  and 
the  ideals  of  religious  education.  And  because  of  the  depth 
of  these  differences  there  is  usually  a  very  real  difference 
between  the  church  that  is  popularly  known  as  an  evangelis- 
tic church  and  the  one  that  is  loyal  to  the  educational  prin- 
ciples. The  difference  can  be  baldly  stated  as  lying  in  the 
fact  that  the  so-called  evangelistic  type  expects  the  pur- 
pose of  religion  to  be  accomplished  in  men,  in  individuals, 
by  a  single  experience  known  as  conversion,  while  the  educa- 
tional t}Tpe  plans  a  programme  of  rehgious  development 
which  constantly  touches  all  lives  at  every  point  and  is 
never  really  completed.  "Evangelism,"  as  it  is  thus  popu- 
larly conceived,  consists  in  so  moving  on  the  consciences 
and  emotions,  and,  rarely,  on  the  minds  of  men,  that  this 
desired  single  experience  is  realized.  All  men  are  regarded 
as  set  oQ  in  two  groups,  the  utterly  lost  or  the  wholly  saved. 


82  THE  FUNCTION  OF  EVANGELISM 

Those  who  have  not  been  converted,  and  who  have  not 
accepted  some  particular  theory  of  atonement,  are  lost — 
"without  God  and  without  hope  in  the  world."  Those 
who  have  "decided"  or  who  "have  been  converted"  (the  ac- 
tive and  the  passive  moods  are  popularly  mixed  here)  are 
"saved,"  or  "redeemed."  Under  these  terms  the  pro- 
gramme of  evangelism  is  very  simple:  by  some  means  or 
another  get  every  individual  through  this  peak  experience, 
and  the  immediate  task  is  completed. 

Whence  comes  this  strange  idea,  strange  at  least  to  the 
good  news  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven?  The  trouble  is  not 
with  the  fundamental  and  proper  conception  of  evangelism; 
it  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  church  has  gradually  allowed  the 
professional  "evangelist"  to  run  away  with  evangelism,  to 
engross  all  its  meaning,  and  to  centre  and  sum  up  all  its 
aims  and  methods  in  his  commonly  lurid  and  abnormal 
practices.  The  churches  have  committed  their  direct  and 
conscious  evangelism  to  certain  ones  who  pose  as  specialists. 
They  have  developed  special  methods,  marked  by  strong 
idiosyncrasies.  They  have  taught  the  churches  to  de- 
pend on  their  sporadic  efforts.  By  the  vagaries  of  their 
methods  they  have  made  evangelism  an  occasional  and  ab- 
normal affair.  Then  they  label  themselves  evangelists.  At 
the  best  their  methods  are  abnormal  in  the  sense  that  a 
spanking  is  abnormal  in  family  discipline — perhaps  effica- 
cious and  necessary  occasionally  but  always  indicating  some- 
thing radically  wrong  not  only  in  the  child  but  in  the  family. 
At  their  worst  their  methods  are  abnormal  as  directly  and 
consistently  opposed  to  the  laws  of  spiritual  development. 
The  present-day  type  of  revivalism  does  not  magnify  re- 
ligion;  apparently  it  magnifies,  first,  the  revivalist,  and, 


THE  EVANGEL  VERSUS  REVIVALISM        83 

second,  a  single  emotional  experience  obtained  at  his  meet- 
ings. It  is  a  passing  vogue  in  religious  practice,  popular 
because  of  its  spectacular  character,  its  advertising  value, 
and  its  success  in  achieving  what  many  churches  regard 
as  their  very  raison  d'etre,  the  addition  of  numbers  to  mem- 
bership.* 

Of  course  good  comes  of  it;  no  one  questions  that  spiritual 
good  comes  from  the  terrible  European  war.  Religious  good 
comes  even  from  the  highly  mechanized,  commercialized 
revival.  It  is,  at  least  to  many,  a  religious  experience  to 
be  brought,  by  any  means  whatsoever,  to  think  of  their  sins, 
to  realize  their  meannesses,  to  think  of  death,  to  feel,  under 
some  emotional  stress,  that  they  give  their  lives  to  God. 
Doubtless  many  will  join  the  church  and  for  some  of  these 
the  revival  will  mark  the  beginning  of  a  developing  religious 
experience.  And  all  this  might  equally  well  be  urged  con- 
cerning some  of  the  most  terrible,  bloody,  and  barbaric 
episodes  in  human  history. 

THE  EVANGEL  VERSUS  REVIVALISM 

The  purpose  of  this  chapter  is  not  to  denounce  the  revival, 
but  to  show  how  the  evangelistic  aim  is  accomplished  by 
the  educational  processes.  But  it  seems  necessary,  when  so 
many,  including  leaders  in  the  chiu*ches,  show  a  tendency  to 
depend  almost  wholly  on  the  sporadic  efforts  of  the  revival- 

*  On  the  reaction  from  a  current  great  revival  and  the  retrograde 
effect  on  the  churches,  see  the  statistical  study  of  the  Welsh  revival  of 
1905-6  in  The  Church  and  the  New  Age,  by  H.  Carter,  p.  34;  and  an- 
other study,  '*  A  Big  Revival  Two  and  One-Half  Years  After,"  by  A.  T. 
Morrison,  in  The  Christian  Century  for  December  21,  1911,  being  a 
study  of  the  Springfield,  111.,  revival.  See  also  Dike,  *' A  Study  of  New 
England  Revivals,"  in  American  Journal  of  Sociology y  vol.  XV. 


84  THE  FUNCTION  OF  EVANGELISM 

ist,  to  consider  briefly  the  difference  between  revivalism  and 
evangelism.  Revivalism  is  not  evangelism — at  least  it  does 
not  declare  the  Christian  evangel.  It  substitutes  for  it  the 
"good  news"  that  men  and  women  may  in  masses  be  swept 
by  an  emotional  experience  into  aligning  themselves  with 
organized  Christianity.  That  is  its  "evangel"  to  the 
churches;  that  is  what  makes  it  so  attractive  to  religious 
people.*  But  the  Christian  evangel,  "good  news,"  is  some- 
thing quite  different — ^it  declares  to  all  men  that  God  loves 
them  and  would  have  them  love  him  and  love  one  another. 
It  declares  that  God  wills  not  the  death  of  any  sinner,  but 
that  all  should  turn  to  him  and  live  with  him  and  live  as  his 
family  here.  It  speaks  of  salvation,  completeness,  whole- 
ness. From  Isaiah's  glowing  visions  to  the  words  of  God's 
latest  prophet  it  speaks  of  healing,  redemption,  freedom;  of 
a  world  wiiere  men  live  w^ith  God,  where  sin  no  more  works 
sorrow,  injustice,  pain,  or  oppression,  but  where  men  live 
in  fulness  of  joy  and  life,  a  society  redeemed  and  living  ac- 
cording to  the  loving  will  of  the  Father  of  all.  The  evangel 
of  the  Gospels  is  the  message  of  a  new  society,  of  brothers, 
of  peace,  of  good  will  amongst  men,  of  social  healing  and 
well-being,  of  a  love  that  overcomes  all  things. 

Now,  this  is  the  evangelism  this  age  needs.  It  is  the  best 
antidote  for  evangelistism  and  revivalism.  It  is  seen  in  the 
work  of  many  churches.  By  teaching  and  training  children, 
by  guiding  the  lives  of  youth,  by  message  and  ministry  to 
adults,  they  are  declaring  the  good  news  that  this  is  God's 
world  and  we  may  live  the  life  of  his  will.  The  educational 
task  of  the  church  includes  this  work.     By  every  means 

*  See  the  article  by  G.  A.  Coe,  ''  Why  Ministers  Want  Billy  Sunday," 
in  The  Congregationalist,  September  16,  1915. 


THE  EVANGEL  VERSUS  REVIVALISM       85 

possible  it  interprets  life  and  the  universe  in  the  glad  and 
glowing  terms  of  goodness,  truth,  and  love.  To  youth  who 
seek  a  vision  that  makes  life  worth  while,  to  all  who,  toil- 
worn  and  harassed,  seek  life's  meaning,  the  church  brings  the 
good  news  of  life.  The  pastor  who  so  preaches  that  men 
lift  up  their  hearts  in  new  courage,  the  teacher  who  so 
teaches  that  childhood  and  youth  give  their  days  in  high 
devotion  and  service — these  are  doing  the  work  of  an 
evangelist.  They  may  well  ignore  the  criticisms  of  the  pro- 
fessional evangelist.  But  since  his  methods  are  so  per- 
sistently advocated  they  will  do  well  to  examine  them  with 
some  care. 

Revivalism  is  not  evangelism,  because  its  message  and 
promise  to  men  is  one  of  individualism;  it  confirms  them  in 
that  individualistic  morality  and  pietism  which  has  made 
possible  our  social  disruption,  hatred,  and  conflict.  It  offers 
a  legalistic  alibi  as  to  past  iniquities  and  an  inoculation  to 
their  consequences.  It  teaches  men  to  pat  themselves  on 
the  back,  rejoicing  that  each  has  been  snatched  from  the  fate 
of  others.  It  teaches  me  to  appreciate  my  own  felicity  in 
being  exempt  from  hell.  It  teaches  this  little  me  to  ignore 
the  present  ills — at  least  the  ills  of  this  world — because  this 
is  but  a  threshold  existence  here :  soon  the  door  opens  and  I 
enter  my  beautiful  home  where  I  can  forget  how  wrong  and 
wicked  this  sad  world  is  in  all  its  suffering.  Has  revivalism 
caused  God's  kingdom  to  come  to  this  world  or  aided  in  giv- 
ing to  men  what  God  wills  for  them  ?  Has  it  shortened  en- 
slaving hours  of  labor,  righted  social  wrongs,  made  the  strong 
love  the  weak,  and  the  men  of  much  goods  help  Lazarus, 
not  to  crumbs  from  the  table,  but  to  wholeness  and  man- 
hood ?    Has  it  rebuked  the  oppressor  or  delivered  the  mes- 


86  THE  FUNCTION  OF  EVANGELISM 

sage  of  Isaiah,  or  of  Amos,  or  of  James,  or  of  Jesus  to  the 
rich  and  the  strong,  and  the  sinners  against  the  kingdom  of 
God? 

Revivalism  is  not  evangehsm,  in  that  it  substitutes  a 
single,  partial  experience  for  that  wholeness  of  life  with 
which  the  gospel  deals.  The  trouble  is  not  that  revivalism 
leads  to  an  emotional  experience;  the  trouble  is  that  it 
leads  to  no  more.  It  so  magnifies  and  stresses  this  one  ex- 
perience as  to  make  it  a  virtual  cul-de-sac  for  the  life.*  It 
teaches  that  this  moment  of  feeling,  of  high  joy  and  pain,  is 
religion — it  is  the  religious  experience,  it  makes  one  a  Chris- 
tian. Before  it  you  were  not,  and  now  you  wholly  are. 
The  entire  interest  turns  about  this  ecstatic  moment.  The 
convert's  mind  goes  back  to  it;  he  would  repeat  the  experi- 
ence over  and  over.  Of  course  he  finds  that  emotions  never 
can  be  artificially  revived,  and  so  he  makes  the  best  of  it  and 
lives  on  the  memory  of  that  moment  "in  the  tabernacle." 
Men  need  emotional  experiences;  that  spring  of  conduct  and 
will  must  be  stimulated.  But  if  emotional  experiences  are 
to  have  value  the  stimulus  must  stimulate  to  something; 
it  must  be  a  beginning  and  not  a  terminus.  Most  persons 
will  have  a  memorable  emotional  experience  on  realizing 
that  God  loves  them  and  on  willing  their  love  in  turn.  It 
is  falling  in  love  with  God,  with  one  ideally  conceived  in  all 
beauty  of  person  and  character;  but  falling  in  love  must 
go  on  to  family  living.  That  is  the  great  evangel,  not  only 
that  such  a  thrill  of  a  new  idea  may  come  to  one  but  that 
the  idea  may  go  on  into  its  fulness  of  meaning,  may  grow 
and  be  increasingly  realized  all  through  life. 

*  On  the  dangers  of  the  single  experience,  see  Henry  C.  King,  in  Per- 
sonal and  Ideal  Elements  in  Education,  p.  162. 


THE  EVANGEL  VERSUS  REVIVALISM        87 

Revivalism  often  opposes  evangelism  by  its  low  moral 
ideals.  The  task  of  the  chm'ch  in  effecting  the  will  of  God 
in  men  and  society  will  be  seriously  hampered  wherever  the 
debasing  commercial  featm-es  are  manifest  in  revivalism. 
Its  work  will  be  retarded  whenever  it  uses  methods  that 
are  below  the  ethical  and  social  standards  of  its  day.  It 
cannot  lead  the  world  forward  if  it  turns  backward  to  prac- 
tise vulgarity  and  cheap  sensationalism.  It  cannot  lead 
men  to  the  Saviour  if  it  publicly  repudiates  the  spirit  of  the 
gentle,  loving  Jesus.  Nor  can  it  make  the  spiritual  really 
first  in  life  if  even  so  much  as  an  appearance  or  suspicion 
of  greed  for  money  is  prominent.  On  the  contrary,  such 
methods  surely  must  constitute  powerful  forces  for  character 
degeneracy.  Such  methods  speak  so  loud  they  will  be  re- 
membered long  after  any  message  is  forgotten.  If  our 
methods  contradict  the  laws  of  life,  if  they  lower  the  worker's 
self-respect  and  cause  honorable  men  to  hang  their  heads  in 
apologetic  shame,  can  we  expect  that  the  will  of  God  will 
result?  Can  a  permanent  body  of  normally  living  Chris- 
tians, growing  in  grace  and  in  power  to  do  God's  will  and 
cause  it  to  be  done,  come  from  the  exploitation  of  tricks  and 
devices  in  crowd  psychology  ? 

Is  this  all  that  can  be  said  for  evangelism  ?  No,  there  is 
the  positive  side.  The  educational  programme  calls  for 
periods  of  special  emphasis.  It  uses  the  power  and  ad- 
vantage that  come  from  gathering  large  numbers  for  a  com- 
mon purpose.  It  recognizes  the  need  of  wakening  those 
who  sleep.  And  it  emphasizes  the  imperative  necessity  of 
stimulating  lives  by  means  of  their  emotions.  Its  purpose 
cannot  be  accomplished  unless  there  are  definite  evangelistic 
plans,  that  is,  plans  to  declare  to  men  the  good  news  of  divine 


88  THE  FUNCTION  OF  EVANGELISM       / 

love.  Men  need,  too,  the  most  solemn  declarations  on  the 
terrible  losses  they  incur  by  rejecting  such  love.  And  these 
messages  must  be  delivered  under  the  most  impressive 
conditions  with  every  legitimate  aid  of  emotional  appeal. 
But  all  this  is  but  part  of  an  orderly  conceived  plan  of 
meeting  the  needs  of  developing  lives  and  the  special  needs 
of  lives  that  have  not  developed  normally. 

For  the  normal  person  the  religious  experience  is  one  of 
continuous  development;  but  that  development  has  its 
crises,  its  outstanding  experiences.  Then  there  are  the 
many  whose  experiences  are  not  normal,  in  whom  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  religious  life  must  be  quickened.  They  must  be 
as  those  who  are  born  again  when  they  are  already  physically 
grown.  The  next  chapter  will  deal  with  the  special  problem 
of  reaching  this  group. 

Any  complete  educational  programme  must  include  efforts 
to  reach  both  the  normal  and  the  abnormal  persons.  The 
educational  mission  will  reach  out  to  every  one.  The  special 
mission  may  be  an  educational  project.  It  seeks  to  do  in  its 
sphere  what  special  patriotic  exercises  in  a  school  seek  to 
do  in  the  development  of  citizens.  It  is  an  educational  proj- 
ect to  make  religion  focal  in  the  thought  of  a  community 
by  means  of  special  meetings.  The  abuse  of  the  evangelistic 
method,  its  occasional  vulgar  and  debasing  aspects,  must  not 
deter  us  from  our  full  duty  to  those  who  need  special  stimulus 
and  aid.  Nor  must  we  forget  that  such  special  aid  is  but 
the  beginning  of  a  continuous  ministry  of  education. 

The  educator  will  not  lose  sight  of  the  value  of  the  mass 
appeal,  nor  of  the  special  advantage  of  seasons  and  occa- 
sions which  are  set  off  and  marked  as  specially  for  religious 
purposes.    We  have  much  to  learn  from  revivalism.    Re- 


THE  EVANGEL  VERSUS  REVIVALISM       89 

membering  the  errors  and  abuses  which  we  have  been  em- 
phasizing, is  it  not  possible  to  use  the  advantages  of  the 
crowd  and  to  direct  the  stimulus  of  great  meetings  and  special 
occasions  toward  a  splendid  enthusiasm  for  righteousness? 
Just  as  all  the  quiet  class-teaching  in  civics  and  ethics  finds  a 
splendid  backing  and  stimulus  in  the  great  civic  festival  or  in 
the  patriotic  meeting,  we  need  to  bring  religion  out  into  the 
area  of  larger  enthusiasms  and  social  feelings. 

It  is  just  as  possible  that  large  numbers  shall  together  see 
the  truth,  feel  helpful  emotions,  and  develop  real  social 
religion  as  that  they  shall  do  the  opposite.  It  is  just  as 
possible  that  large  numbers  shall  feel  the  thrill  of  splendid 
hynms  and  the  spiritual  elevation  of  great  music  as  that 
they  shall  be  debauched  by  trash.  The  large  number  is 
the  educator's  opportunity.  The  present  vogue  of  what 
seems  to  many  to  be  so  thoroughly  harmful  is  our  opportunity 
to  discover  and  apply  the  right  kinds  of  mass  appeal  in  re- 
ligion, the  means  of  guiding  large  numbers  into  righteousness, 
or  at  least  of  giving  them  the  right  initial  impulse.  On  no 
account  must  the  educational  church  abandon  a  programme 
of  evangelism.  It  must  limit  the  field  and  redeem  the  meth- 
ods of  the  present  emphasis  and  it  must  apply  itself  to  its 
own  steady,  normal  programme  of  evangelism. 

REFERENCES 

James,  William,  Tlie  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience  (especially  chap. 
X)  (Longmans,  1902). 

Davenport,  F.  M.,  Primitive  Traits  in  Religious  Revivals  (Macmillan, 
1905). 

Dike,  S.  W.,  "A  Study  of  New  England  Revivals'*  {American  Jour- 
nal of  Sociology,  vol.  XV,  1909,  p.  361). 

King,  Henry  C,  Personal  and  Ideal  Elements  in  Education  (Macmillan, 
1904). 


CHAPTER  VIII 
EDUCATIONAL  EVANGELISM  AND  ADULTS 

The  church  with  the  educational  ideal  must  not  lose  sight 
of  the  unquickened  men  and  women  in  every  community. 
For  them  it  must  devise  the  methods  suited  to  their  special 
needs.  It  will  be  loyal  to  the  educational  principle  in  the 
degree  that  its  methods  are  actually  based  on  their  needs, 
on  their  natures,  and  on  the  religious  aim  in  persons  and  in 
society. 

If  the  programme  of  religious  education  could  always 
reach  all  persons  through  all  their  lives,  the  number  of  these 
abnormal  lives  would  be  very  small.  But  in  fact  the  number 
is  very  large.  They  have  been  neglected.  They  must  now 
be  brought  to  know  themselves  as  in  God's  family.  This 
experience  will  come  to  them  in  varied  ways,  for  some 
gradually,  for  others  suddenly.  For  some  it  will  come 
quietly,  for  others  as  a  tremendous  upheaval.  But  the 
large  number  of  adults  to  whom  rehgion  is  not  a  life  experi- 
ence constitute  a  real  and  serious  part  of  the  educational 
problem  of  the  church. 

THOSE  WHO  ARE  WITHOUT 

These  words  are  being  written  in  one  of  the  largest  cities 
of  the  South,  in  a  city  conscious  of,  and  definitely  proud  of, 
its  churches,  in  a  section  where  in  social  custom  and  daily 
speech  religion  is  as  normal  as  patriotism  is  everywhere  in 
this  year  of  world  fire  and  purging.    In  a  few  hours  the 

90 


A  PROBLEM  IN  ATTENTION  91 

church-bells  will  ring  from  many  steeples  and  families  will 
flock  to  their  houses  of  worship.  But,  in  spite  of  tradition 
and  social  usage,  for  every  one  in  a  church  there  will  be 
three  or  four  on  the  streets,  riding  to  pleasure-resorts  or 
seeking  some  form  of  diversion.  That  is  the  spectacle  which 
presents  a  problem  to  every  religious  person  to-day;  it  is 
the  one  which  stirs  churches  to  special  evangelistic  efforts. 

It  would  be  thoughtless  to  assume  that  non-attendance 
at  church  is  an  exact  index  to  irreligion.  Some  are  absent 
on  account  of  their  religion;  their  spiritual  life  does  not 
strengthen  itself  in  the  ways  that  suit  so  many  others.  Many 
are  absent  because  this  day  is  the  one  opportunity  they  have 
for  the  freedom  of  the  outdoors.  But  when  all  allowances 
have^been  made  the  fact  remains  that  the  greater  number  are 
without  religious  consciousness.  There  are  multitudes,  in- 
cluding many  very  intelligent  persons,  to  whom  religion  is 
wholly  foreign.  Does  the  programme  of  religious  education 
ignore  these  ?     If  so,  it  is  wof ully  deficient. 

The  problem  is  very  real  and  vital.  Even  our  emphasis 
on  the  importance  of  the  child  must  help  us  to  see  this,  for 
these  unreached  multitudes  either  are  or  soon  will  be  the 
parents  of  the  next  generation.  Unless  their  lives  become 
consciously  religious  their  children  are  most  unlikely  to  have 
their  full  rights  as  religious  persons;  they  will  but  repeat  the 
shortened  experiences  of  their  parents. 

A  PROBLEM  IN  ATTENTION 

The  immediate  problem  is  a  very  practical  one,  for  the 
first  step  will  be  to  get  the  attention  of  these  people.  This 
task  religious  education  cannot  ignore,  for  it  is  as  truly  the 
duty  of  education  to  begin  any  training  that  has  been  long 


92    EDUCATIONAL  EVANGELISM  AND  ADULTS 

neglected  as  it  is  to  maintain  training  from  the  beginning. 
The  difficulty  is  accentuated  by  our  apparent  lack  of  educa- 
tional precedents  in  dealing  with  such  a  situation.  It  is 
further  accentuated  by  our  habit  of  thinking  of  education  as 
confined  to  the  young  and  restricted  to  formal  instruction. 

The  task  is,  first,  one  of  awakening  intelligent  interest. 
This  interest  may  have  many  bases,  such  as  quickened  curi- 
osity as  to  religion  and  its  activities,  awakened  consciousness 
of  personal  deficiencies  and  needs,  desire  to  share  in  the 
social  life  of  the  religious  group,  or  desire  better  to  dis- 
charge parental,  civic,  and  social  duties. 

POSSIBLE  PRECEDENTS 

Perhaps  we  may  discover  a  larger  number  of  educational 
precedents  than  at  first  appear  and  a  larger  body  of  helpful 
experience  than  we  have  at  first  realized.  Our  problem  is 
that  of  reaching  adults,  of  arresting  the  passing  crowd. 
At  this  time  several  nations  are  engaged  in  great  and  in- 
tensive programmes  of  adult  education  in  national  service. 
Men  and  women  are  being  quickened  to  duties  which, 
in  increasing  measure,  are  being  conceived  in  terms  wider 
than  nationalism.  The  results  in  England  and  in  North 
America  are  familiar  to  all.  While  many  of  the  methods 
are  not  educationally  sound  and  many  are  not  at  all  appli- 
cable to  the  problem  of  religion,  tliere  are  still  valuable  les- 
sons to  be  learned  from  this  educational  endeavor.  Gen- 
erally speaking,  the  methods  are  those  used  in  well-conceived 
advertising  campaigns.  Much  modern  advertising  is  care- 
fully based  on  scientific  principles  determined  by  psycho- 
logical investigations.  The  principles  we  would  follow  must 
have  this  common  basis. 


POSSIBLE  PRECEDENTS  93 

First:  Attention  is  secured  by  appeals  which  make 
contacts  with  the  present  thinking  and  experience  of  adults. 
This  is  a  primary  principle  of  teaching.  To  lead  the  learner 
every  teacher  must  begin  his  teaching  where  the  learner 
now  is  in  thought  and  feeling.  Contacts  are  made  through 
language.  For  this  popular  teaching  of  adults  simple,  non- 
technical language  is  used.  Whether  it  be  posters  or  edi- 
torials or  the  presentation  of  information  it  is  in  the  language 
of  the  people.  But  note  that  experience  has  indicated  that 
it  does  not  pay  to  use  slang.  An  examination  of  the  many 
forms  of  material  used  will  show  a  steady  tendency  in- 
creasingly to  respect  both  the  taste  and  the  intelligence  of 
even  that  mythical  creature,  the  man  on  the  street.  Con- 
tacts are  made  through  experience.  Appeals  are  based  on 
present  interests.  They  are  put  into  terms  of  the  present- 
day  facts  of  our  own  lives.  Certainly  the  religious  teacher 
can  profit  by  that  lesson.  ^Vhen  religion  comes  to  men  so 
as  to  show  its  realities  in  their  own  lives,  its  place  in  their 
homes  and  daily  affairs,  they  receive  it  gladly.  So  often 
campaigns  that  otherwise  are  conceived  on  the  basis  of  much 
advertising  wisdom  fail  because  they  present  only  ideas  of 
another  world;  even  where  their  language  is  not  theological 
their  thought  is  unreal — outside  of  human,  common  experi- 
ence. 

Second:  The  great  educational  efforts  to  win  adult  atten- 
tion use  a  variety  of  avenues.  They  are  addressed  to  the  eye 
as  well  as  to  the  ear.  They  present  themselves  in  forms  of 
artistic  beauty.  They  appeal,  through  the  eye,  not  only  by 
posters  but  also  by  impressive  symbols.  Has  the  church 
used  fully  the  power  of  symbols  presented  to  the  public? 
There  is  a  vast  difference  between  a  symbol  of  religion  which 


94    EDUCATIONAL  EVANGELISM  AND  ADULTS 

is  regarded  as  possessed  of  some  supernatural  power  and  a 
symbol  which  serves  as  a  key  to  associations  of  memory 
or  of  aspu-ation.  The  symbol  is  a  form  of  language.  In 
small  compass  it  may  speak  a  message;  it  may  waken  mem- 
ories; it  may  embody  long  historical  associations,  all  of 
which  may  stir  the  imagination  and  the  feelings  as  no 
printed  words  could  do.  Surely  every  educator  ought  to 
use  every  form  of  language  which  can  be  understood  by  those 
whom  he  would  educate. 

Third:  Present-day  adult  education  uses  the  stimulus  of 
the  pageant.  The  sense  of  civic  duty  is  quickened  by 
pageants  showing  the  past  history,  and,  in  allegorical  form, 
the  future  promise  of  the  civic  life.  Regunents  march 
through  the  city  streets  for  the  sake  of  the  people  on  the 
sidewalks.  The  spectacle  speaks  of  more  than  a  present 
situation;  it  brings  to  minds  and  wills  the  force  of  historical 
and  ideal  associations.  A  pageant  like  "The  Mission  Play" 
given  in  California  creates  a  new  appreciation  of  the  part 
that  one  church  played  in  the  early  life  of  the  Pacific  coast; 
but  it  also  creates  a  sense  of  the  reality  of  the  religious 
organization  in  all  life. 

Fourth:  One  of  the  most  potent  means  by  which  atten- 
tion is  enlisted  and  personal  loyalty  is  awakened  is  that  of 
service.  One  root  of  our  quickened  patriotism  is  the  sense 
of  a  common  helpful  life  in  which  we  share  and  for  which 
we  are  grateful.  Ministry  wins  men.  It  is  effective  largely 
in  the  degree  that  it  looks  for  no  return,  when  it  is  uncon- 
scious of  its  power  to  win.  Every  service  the  church  renders 
is  an  exposition  of  its  worth  and  an  appeal  to  the  co-opera- 
tion of  all  right-minded  persons.  This  is  not  a  plea  for  any 
plan  of  purchasing  people  by  soup  or  by  any  form  of  service. 


POSSIBLE  PRECEDENTS  95 

It  is  simply  an  insistence  on  the  power  of  the  practical  mes- 
sage of  service.  Even  the  indifferent  know  love  when  it 
reaches  them  in  helpful  ways.  This  is  teaching  by  the 
most  direct  means.  It  declares  the  gospel  of  divine  love 
hy  a  demonstration  of  human  brotherhood  at  work.  There 
is  no  rebuttal  of  its  arguments.  It  educates  just  as  the  con- 
tinuous ministry  of  sacrifice  in  the  family  educates  all  whom 
it  reaches. 

Fifth:  These  appeals  are  designed  to  lead  to  simple  steps 
of  action.  They  are  addressed  to  beginnings.  They  pre- 
sent no  long  arguments  and  they  prescribe  nothing  beyond 
the  next  and  the  feasible  action.  This  is  illustrated  in  much 
good  advertising.  One  is  urged  to  do  the  next  thing.  This 
is  not  guile;  this  is  good  educational  sense.  Teaching  is 
always  by  steps.  It  is  possible  to  lead  only  from  what  we 
now  experience  into  what  we  can  see  just  before  us.  That 
step  taken,  the  next  one  appears. 

Sixth:  The  steps  are  practical.  Ex-perience  reveals  fully 
their  meanings.  The  deed  precedes  the  doctrine.  We  are 
still  commonly  attempting  to  invert  that  process  in  relig- 
ious teaching.  But  the  great  Teacher  won  men  by  calling 
them  to  walk  with  him,  to  do  the  next,  simple  thing.  But 
it  is  not  only  a  practical  and  simple  step  that  is  to  be  taken; 
it  must  have  reality  and  meaning.  Joining  a  church  might 
seem  to  be  a  simple  step;  but  it  will  not  be  taken  unless  it 
is  seen  as  a  w^orth-while,  meaningful  one.  Almost  all  who 
have  had  experience  in  work  in  the  church  will  recall  per- 
sons who  have  come  into  its  life  through  an  invitation  to 
share,  at  some  point  of  practical  need,  in  its  work.  The 
first  act  has  been  the  beginning  of  practical  training  in  the 
religious  life.    Those  who  participate  learn  that  life  by  liv- 


96    EDUCATIONAL  EVANGELISM  AND  ADULTS 

ing  It.  The  lessons  may  be  unconscious;  they  will  be  spoiled 
if  morals  are  attached  to  them.  Let  each  one  discover  for 
himself  the  significance  of  these  steps. 

Seventh:  Adult  attention  is  won  by  appeals  of  a  high 
character.  The  successful  posters  are  those  w^hich  some- 
how brace  our  idealism  even  before  they  compel  our  action. 
They  command  our  respect  and  they  seem  to  say:  "We  re- 
spect you,  we  believe  in  your  higher  motives."  At  least  in 
the  United  States,  and  doubtless  everywhere  else,  more  men 
worth  winning  have  been  won  by  appeals  to  ideal  interests 
than  by  appeals  to  self-interest.  Fear  seems  to  have  failed 
as  a  motive  here.  One  cannot  meet  the  college  boys  who 
have  gone  first  to  the  front  without  getting  a  new  measure 
of  faith  in  their  idealism,  nor  without  realizing  that,  under 
the  protective  coloring  of  their  cynicism  and  indifference, 
lie  keys  that  rightly  touched  give  out  the  music  of  splendid 
ideals.  One  must  believe  in  men  to  win  them.  The  best 
appears  only  when  the  best  is  called. 

EDUCATIONAL  RESPONSIBILITY  FOR  THE  UNCHURCHED 

Is  it  not  high  time,  recognizing  the  needs  of  the  large 
numbers  of  unawakened  persons,  to  give  more  careful  atten- 
tion to  this  problem  than  we  have  yet  given  ?  Have  we  not 
too  readily  adopted  and  solely  depended  upon  methods 
which  have  no  better  basis  than  guesses  and  hopes?  We 
have  discovered  our  plans  by  accident  or  we  have  adopted 
them  upon  assumptions.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  church  to  use 
in  this  high  task  all  that  can  be  learned  from  educational 
science.  The  psychology  of  the  adult  is  the  clue  to  the  adult 
life.  We  cannot  win  these  lives  save  as  we  obey  the  laws  of 
life.    Then  we  must  lay  tribute  to  all  educational  experience 


RESPONSIBILITY  FOR  THE  UNCHURCHED    97 

wherever  it  may  be  found,  not  only  in  colleges  and  schools 
but  in  the  great  experiments  in  advertising  and  in  the 
present  educational  propaganda  for  patriotic  service. 

In  every  church  there  might  well  be  a  group  to  whom  this 
problem  is  committed  as  a  special  interest.  It  need  not  be 
a  committee  or  board,  publicly  announced;  but  the  pastor 
might  select  those  persons  who  could  appreciate  the  problem 
and  who  would  be  likely  to  study  it  with  him.  They  would 
find  it  an  exceedingly  interesting  one.  It  would  lead  into 
the  history  of  revivals,  into  the  history  and  present  practice 
of  advertising,  into  the  study  of  political  campaigns,  and, 
most  important  of  all,  into  the  study  of  the  minds  and  wills 
of  men  and  women.  Such  a  group  would  be  able  to  feel 
that  they  were  facing  one  of  the  most  difficult  and  most  neg- 
lected tasks  of  the  church,  that  they  were  learning  God's 
ways  of  working,  that  they  were  embarked  on  a  truly  splen- 
did enterprise.* 

Their  task  would  be  in  the  most  exact  sense  educational. 
They  would  be  concerned  with  the  quickening  of  lives,  with 
the  beginnings  of  that  development  in  life  and  character 
which  is  the  aim  of  religious  education  in  the  church. 

This  chapter  has  emphasized  beginnings  for  adults;  it 
has  attempted  to  face  the  special  problem  of  arresting  and 
enlisting  the  attention  of  the  mdifferent.  But  beginnings 
are  only  worth  while  when  they  are  seen  as  only  beginnings. 
These  are  some  of  the  means  of  securing  attention;  the  les- 
son of  life  must  follow.  For  adults  who  begin  their  lessons 
so  late  in  life  there  is  needed  special  training. 

Whenever  in  any  community  special  concentrations  of 

*  This  committee  might  make  a  collection  of  the  posters  used  in  the 
recruiting,  Red  Cross,  Liberty  Loan,  and  Y.  M.  C.  A.  campaigns. 


98    EDUCATIONAL  EVANGELISM  AND  ADULTS 

religious  emphasis  have  succeeded  in  quickening  numbers 
of  persons  who  have  been  out  of  all  relations  to  the  pro- 
grammes of  the  churches,  these  persons  constitute  a  peculiar 
problem  in  religious  education.  Their  training  in  the  life 
of  a  religious  society  has  been,  frequently,  wholly  neglected 
or  avoided.  The  assumption  that  their  striking  religious 
experiences  in  the  special  meetings  will  make  up  for  this  de- 
ficiency is  not  a  valid  one.  Whatever  their  theoretical 
standing  may  be,  practically  they  are  novices  in  the  religious 
society.  They  are  initiates  and  must  be  trained  in  its  life. 
Therefore  the  educational  programme  must  make  special 
provision  for  these  newly  awakened  ones. 

Courses  of  study  for  the  adult  fruits  of  special  evangelism 
— as  contrasted  with  the  results  of  the  steady  evangelism 
going  on  through  the  normal  programme  of  religious  training 
— should  be  more  than  rapid-survey  courses  designed  to  do 
quickly  that  which  normally  would  take  years.  They  should 
be  based  upon  the  adult's  needs.  They  would  include  knowl- 
edge of  the  history  of  faith  and  of  the  church,  the  meaning  of 
religion  in  the  life  of  to-day,  the  special  religious  problems 
of  thought,  and,  especially,  carefully  arranged  training  in  the 
practice  of  the  every-day  religious  life  and  service  in  the 
church  and  in  the  world. 

REFERENCES 

Scott,  W.  D.,  Psychology  of  Advertising  (Small,  1906). 

McGarrah,  a.  F.,  a  Modern  Church  Program  (Revell,  1915). 

McDowell,  W.  F.,  Good  Ministers  of  Jesus  Christ,  lecture  V  (Abing- 
don Press,  1917). 

Men  and  Religious  Messages,  vol.  VII,  sees.  7-9  (Association  Press, 
1912). 

The  Sunday  School  Executive  (monthly,  D.  C.  Cook)  publishes  excellent 
examples  of  posters. 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  EDUCATIONAL  EVANGEL 

Has  the  educational  ideal  any  further  significance  or 
place  in  the  programme  of  evangelism?  Holding  and  de- 
claring the  Christian  good  news,  how  does  the  church  use 
the  educational  method?  A  full  answer  would  be  a  state- 
ment of  the  whole  programme  of  the  church.  By  all  means 
that  are  right  it  teaches;  it  seeks  to  make  all  men  know  the 
good  news  of  the  love  of  God  and  it  stimulates,  directs,  and 
trains  them  into  the  realization  in  their  own  lives  and  in  the 
social  whole  of  all  that  the  good  news  means.  The  educa- 
tional method  seeks  to  realize  the  full  evangelistic  message. 

Let  all  who  believe  in  the  educational  programme  in  the 
church  insist  on  its  evangelistic  validity  and  value.  Let 
them  keep  constantly  in  mind  the  evangelistic  aim.  Let 
them  answer — by  their  religious  devotion  to  lives,  to  per- 
sons, to  the  divine  ideal  for  men  and  for  society — the  super- 
ficial sneer  against  education  as  a  merely  academic  affair. 
The  church  as  an  educator  is  dealing  with  matters  too  vital 
ever  to  allow  herself  to  become  merely  an  academic  institu- 
tion: she  is  a  life-growing  institution,  and,  as  a  society,  she 
is  more  than  an  institution;  she  is  a  life-growing  organism. 
All  her  programme  of  education  has  the  evangelistic  aim, 
is  moved  into  action  by  the  evangelistic  motive,  and  is  deter- 
mined by  the  evangelistic  principle  of  dealing  with  men  as 
the  children  of  God. 

Is  there,  then,  any  difference  between  evangelism  and 

99 


100  THE  EDUCATIONAL  EVANGEL 

education?  It  has  been  suggested  that  there  are  certain 
vast  differences  between  popular  evangelism  and  religious 
education,  but  the  nature  of  these  essential  differences  can 
be  seen  best  by  looking  with  a  little  care  at  the  distinctive 
features  of  the  educational  ideal  and  programme  in  the 
church  so  far  as  they  relate  to  the  evangelistic  aim.  This 
will  also  help  to  answer  the  question,  How  can  the  evan- 
gelistic church  use  the  educational  method  ? 

LIFE,  THE  EVANGELISTIC  ABI 

The  first  characteristic  of  the  education  ideal  in  a  church 
is  a  consciousness  of  vital  processes.  Education  deals  with 
living  beings.  It  is  vital,  not  mechanical,  statistical,  nor 
institutional.  Living  beings  are  its  materials,  life  is  its 
method,  and  living  persons  its  essential  mechanism.  Its 
aim  is  to  modify  and  develop  lives.  Ideas,  doctrines,  tradi- 
tions, philosophies  are  but  tools.  It  does  not  work  for 
the  sake  of  "the  truth,"  that  is,  for  any  special  body  of  facts. 
It  seeks  the  truth  in  order  that  truth  may  serve.  Truth  has 
no  value  at  all  save  in  relation  to  people,  save  as  it  passes 
over  into  reality  through  action  and  becomes  life.  A  church 
does  not  fulfil  its  purpose  by  acting  as  a  reservoir  for  truth; 
it  sends  truth  gushing  out  through  the  channels  of  life,  puri- 
fying, invigorating,  and  serving  men.  It  is  not  called  to 
mount  guard  over  a  set  of  statements  called  "the  truth," 
set  off  in  a  vault  or  a  glass  case.  Truths  thus  sequestrated 
are  dead.  It  causes  truth  to  flame — to  burn  and  warm  and 
warn.  It  causes  truth  to  set  men's  hearts  and  brains  afire, 
to  change  men's  minds  and  thus  to  change  the  world.  Its 
relation  to  truth  is  that  of  the  workman  who  holds  a  fine 
tool;  he  must  master  it  and  make  it  useful. 


LIFE,  THE  EVANGELISTIC  AIM  101 

So  the  church  can  know  whether  her  work  is  being  done, 
not  by  whether  certain  doctrines  are  preserved  but  by 
whether  men  are  changed,  by  what  takes  place  in  Hves.  Hers 
is  a  garden  where  grow  the  sons  of  men;  she  deals  not  with 
the  dead  past,  not  with  organization  and  tradition,  but  with 
lives  first,  Hves  which  she  will  develop  by  the  use  of  every 
appropriate  means.  So  that  the  educational  ideal  insists  on 
one  simple  and  very  essential  element  of  evangelism;  it  is 
directed  to  persons.  It  goes  farther,  it  seeks  the  salvation 
of  persons;  it  seeks  their  realization  of  the  divine  ideal. 

This  vital  function  in  religious  education  has  to  do  with 
lives  as  wholes,  in  contrast  to  the  notion  of  dealing  with 
separate  parts,  "hearts,"  "souls,"  and  minds.  The  life 
is  not  separable  into  either  faculties  or  "belts."  A  man 
cannot  be  saved  in  his  affections  and  remain  unsaved,  dis- 
eased and  filthy,  in  mind  or  imagination.  The  church  is  not 
a  specialized  institution  to  deal  with  souls  while  the  school 
deals  with  minds  and  the  rest  of  organized  society  cares  for 
bodies.  The  person  acts  as  a  whole;  he  is  what  all  his  being 
feels  and  knows  and  does.  To  be  saved  his  whole  self  must 
be  saved.  Salvation  by  a  single  mental  act  or  an  emotional 
experience  cannot  complete  the  work  of  growing  this  person 
to  the  fulness  of  the  divine  ideal.  Here,  in  this  view  of  life, 
is  one  great  and  easily  seen  difference  between  the  current 
evangelistic  emphasis  and  the  educational  ideal.  The  for- 
mer touches  life  only  at  the  point  of  a  single  experience, 
and  usually  only  through  one  activity  of  the  person;  the 
latter  seeks  by  continuous  process  always  to  involve  all  the 
activities  and  powers.  The  former  seeks  the  acceptance  of 
one  aspect  of  truth;  the  latter  seeks  a  life  that  steadily 
moves  forward,  in  growing  light  of  truth,  in  growing  love  of 


102  THE  EDUCATIONAL  EVANGEL 

God,  in  growing  beauty  of  life  and  harmony  witli  all  lives. 
The  educational  ideal  emphasizes  the  breadth  of  the  true 
evangelistic  appeal. 

THE  NOTE  OF  REALITY 

This  vital  function  has  to  do  with  real  lives.  In  the  school 
and  college  modern  education  has  been  coming  out  of  the 
closet  of  antiquities  into  the  workshop  and  ways  of  life; 
we  are  learning  to  see  education  not  only  as  a  process  for  life 
but  as  a  process  through  the  experience  of  life.  Through  the 
realities  of  living  we  really  find  life.  So  in  the  church  there 
is  a  consciousness  of  dealing  with  reality,  with  this  imme- 
diate present  experience  as  the  very  school  through  which 
larger  life  is  realized.  The  educational  programme  of  such  a 
church  consists  in  much  more  than  courses  in  the  philosophy 
and  history  and  literature  of  religion.  It  is  a  programme 
of  experience.  It  demonstrates  the  educational  principle 
that  "if  any  man  will  do  His  will  he  shall  know  of  the  doc- 
trine." Education  shares  the  pragmatic  note  of  modern 
social  evangelism. 

This  principle  of  reality  is  of  central  importance.  It 
shows  the  only  way  that  religion  becomes  real  in  life.  Noth- 
ing is  real  until  it  is  realized,  until  in  some  way  it  enters 
vitally  into  experience.  We  have  discarded  some  ideals  in 
education;  the  pale  bookworm  and  the  erudite  delver  in 
dead  dust  are  no  longer  the  typical  products  of  education. 
But  the  present  programme  of  religious  education  is  still 
cramped  by  vestiges  of  the  informational  ideal;  for  many 
the  favorite  word  is  "curricula";  their  tools  are  books  and 
their  goals  examinations.  Modern  education  has  as  its 
motto  the  words  of  Jesus:  "I  am  come  that  they  might  have 
life  and  that  they  might  have  it  more  abundantly." 


FAITH  IN  LAW  103 

Then,  too,  the  principle  of  reality  dominates  method  in 
religious  education.  As  Carlyle  said,  "  Men  do  not  become 
saints  in  their  sleep";  it  matters  not  whether  they  try  the 
process  in  pews  or  dreaming  through  the  glories  of  the  past. 
Lives  develop  when  they  are  in  activity,  when  experience  is 
functioning.  True,  we  need  classrooms  and  courses  of 
study;  they  are  the  machinery  and  the  agencies  which 
stimulate  and  guide  activity.  But  somehow  we  must  make 
sure  that  all  teaching  goes  over  into  experience,  that  all 
becomes  real  in  the  life  of  the  learner.  No  one  knows  the 
worth  of  the  soul  until,  as  the  old  evangelistic  phrase  had  it, 
he  "works  for  souls."  The  work  may  be  done  in  new  ways 
to-day,  as  well  as  in  some  old  ways;  but  it  must  be  done  not 
only  for  the  sake  of  the  work  but  also  for  the  sake  of  the 
worker. 

The  vital  function  has  to  do  with  growing  lives.  Because 
they  are  the  lives  of  persons,  under  personal  relations,  liv- 
ing through  experience,  they  must  grow.  Here  is  no  static 
aim,  but  a  dynamic  and  therefore  a  developing  one.  Such 
a  life  does  not  reach  fulness  in  some  heated  moment;  growth 
goes  on  through  all  the  days.  It  follows  One  who  grew  in 
wisdom  and  stature.  Here  again  is  readily  seen  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  popular  evangelistic  idea  and  the  educa- 
tional ideal.  But  one  will  also  see  the  identity  between  this 
ideal  and  the  message  so  frequently  emphasized  in  the  New 
Testament.  The  evangel  declares  that  men  may  grow  in 
grace,  that  lives  must  become  steadily  more  Godlike. 

FAITH  IN  LAW 

Very  closely  connected  is  the  next  great  vital  principle: 
these  growing  lives  develop  in  an  orderly  manner ,  under  law. 
We  accept  the  universality  of  law  in  all  other  realms  of  life. 


104  THE  EDUCATIONAL  EVANGEL 

Is  it  possible  we  are  in  a  universe  that  mocks  us  by  having 
a  law  for  the  life  of  the  squash  and  none  for  the  soul,  that 
here  apples  grow  according  to  discoverable  laws  but  persons 
must  be  left  to  chance,  to  accident,  or  to  laws  that  no  man 
may  know?  The  faith  of  the  educational  ideal  holds  that 
it  is  possible  to  know  how  people  do  grow  as  religious  per- 
sons, how  they  do  develop  Godward.  It  holds  that,  knowing 
this,  it  is  possible  to  order  and  control  the  processes  toward 
the  desired  result.  It  is  marked  by  patient  endeavor  to 
know  the  laws  of  life,  this  whole  life,  and  to  obey  them. 
This  is  the  attitude  of  true  reverence.  Here  is  where  men 
walk  truly  with  unshod  feet.  To  ignore  the  laws  of  life  is  to 
walk  roughshod,  in  blatant  assumption  of  the  superiority  of 
our  ignorance  and  our  guesses  over  God's  eternal  truth. 
The  educator  is  ever  a  learner;  he  seeks  to  read  the  book  of 
life  and  to  him  all  its  pages  are  sacred.  That  willingness  to 
learn  everywhere,  the  avoidance  of  the  scoffer's  seat  wher- 
ever found,  is  the  mark  of  the  scientific  mind. 

The  vital  principle  sees  life  growing  always.  In  life  growth 
of  some  sort  must  be  continuous  in  some  form.  Because 
here  we  are  working  with  the  whole  of  real  persons,  we  must 
work  with  the  whole  of  their  experience,  with  the  full  range 
of  their  lives.  This  implies  not  only  the  range  of  interests 
but  all  the  range  of  time  and  experience.  This  is  the  logic 
of  Horace  BushnelFs  principle  of  "Christian  Nurture."* 
It  makes  little  difference  what  your  theological  views  may 
be  in  regard  to  the  "status"  of  the  little  child;  the  fact  re- 
mains that  the  child  is  alive  and  growing  and  becoming.  To 
direct  the  development  of  this  person  we  must  deal  with  him 
in  all  stages  of  his  becoming.  That  holds  good  as  far  as 
*  Revised  edition,  published  by  Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  1917. 


FAITH  IN  LAW  105 

we  can  see  and  as  far  as  we  can  reach.  Much  current  prac- 
tice in  religion  apparently  hopes  to  grow  a  full  life  by  be- 
ginning when  it  is  half -spent.  Its  emphasis  is  on  a  midway 
event  called  conversion.  Education  recognizes  the  tremen- 
dous importance  of  the  conversion  experience,  but  it  also 
recognizes  that  this  is  determined  by  what  has  gone  be- 
fore. It  sees  all  experience,  before  and  after,  as  part  of  the 
whole  process  of  a  growing  life. 

Many  of  us  heartily  believe  that  the  youngest  child  is 
at  least  as  much  the  object  of  the  Infinite  affection  as  any 
grown  man,  or  any  person,  whatever  his  theological  status 
may  be.  Religion  is  such  an  experience  in  life  that  we  never 
can  find  the  time  when,  so  long  as  consciousness  is  discover- 
able to  us,  the  experience  may  not  function  in  some  way. 
It  is  never  too  early  to  be  religious,  that  is,  to  feel  and  think, 
to  the  best  of  our  abilities,  of  life  as  having  spiritual  value. 
It  is  never  too  early  to  pray,  to  aspire,  to  think  of  God  in 
the  beauty  and  joy  and  love  of  the  world.  It  is  never  too 
soon  for  the  life  to  begin  to  grow,  to  gain  its  powers,  acquire 
its  habits,  and  find  its  fulness.  But  it  is  important  to  re- 
member that  if  religion  is  real  to  a  child  it  will  be  a  child's 
religion;  the  form  of  expression  will  be  consonant  with  the 
stage  of  development. 

Religious  education  does  not  wait  for  the  development  of 
some  contrary  experience;  it  does  not  wait  for  wandering 
in  order  to  make  "returning"  real.  It  does  not  assume  the 
normality  of  the  rake's  progress  in  every  life,  nor  predicate 
the  consciousness  of  being  the  real  child  of  God  upon  a 
prodigal's  experience.  The  evangel  of  religious  education 
is  that  men  already  have  in  them  all  the  possibilities  of  the 
religious  life,  and  that  the  really  normal  experience  would 


106  THE  EDUCATIONAL  EVANGEL 

be  that  no  child  should  ever  think  of  himself,  either  in  child- 
hood or  later,  as  any  other  than  God's  child,  nor  ever  live  in 
any  other  way.* 

Most  faith  in  "infant  damnation"  applies  only  to  the 
neighbor's  children;  our  doubts  about  children  belonging 
to  God  do  not  affect  our  attitude  to  our  own  children.  From 
their  first  breaths  we  pray  that  they  may  be  his  children. 
We  assume  in  all  our  dealings  with  them  that  they  really  are 
his  children.  We  want  them  to  grow  up  always  so  think- 
ing, and  looking  out  always  on  the  world  as  seen  through 
such  a  thought,  as  seen  as  the  world  of  his  great  love.  Prag- 
matically parenthood  overcomes  all  other  polemics  when  we 
look  at  a  little  one.f  Thus  the  educational  ideal  includes 
the  message  of  good  news  concerning  the  children,  "  the  least 
of  these  httle  ones." 

So  the  church  regards  the  children.  No  matter  what  pre- 
tensions she  may  make  of  an  educational  programme  the 
vital  test  is  just  here:  What  does  she  do  for  the  children? 
Have  they  a  real  place  in  her  life?  Does  her  programme 
mean  that  she  cares  for  the  whole  of  lives,  and,  most  of  all, 
does  it  mean  that  her  best  endeavors  are  centred  on  their 
growth  at  the  time  when  growth  most  effectively  and  po- 
tentially takes  place  ?    Does  she  set  the  child  in  the  midst  ? 

EPOCHAL  EXPERIENCES 

The  educational  ideal,  then,  sees  religion  as  a  life  experi- 
ence— always  possible  in  some  way,  doubtless  always  present 

*  See  The  Moral  Condition  and  Development  of  the  Child,  by  W.  A. 
Wright  (Jennings  and  Graham,  75  cents). 

t  See  Preservation  vs.  Rescue  of  the  Child,  by  John  T.  McFarland, 
pamphlet  (Eaton  &  Mains). 


EPOCHAL  EXPERIENCES  107 

in  some  way.  It  sees  the  programme  of  religion  as  bringing 
every  life  steadily  forward,  all  through  its  experiences,  from 
the  earliest  beginning  thi'ough  all  its  phases  into  all  its  ful- 
ness. Of  course  it  does  not  dream  that  such  a  development 
is  always  on  a  serene,  unvarying  level.  To  do  so  would  be 
to  ignore  what  we  know  of  the  laws  under  which  life  grows. 
It  recognizes  crises,  great  epochal  points.  There  is  a 
moment  when  the  apple  that  has  been  growing  so  long 
bursts  its  spring  sheath  and  a  glowing  flower  breaks  forth; 
the  whole  hillside  flames  with  the  tender  glory.  That  is 
an  orderly  step  toward  the  ripe  apple.  There  is,  for  at  least 
many  lives,  a  time  when  consciousness  breaks  forth  on  a 
new  world;  the  life  finds  itself,  its  fellows,  its  world,  and  its 
God.  It  is  a  wonderful  experience;  there  may  never  be 
anything  else  like  it,  but  it  is  all  a  part  of  the  normal  develop- 
ment of  the  person.  Conversion  is  a  crisis;  but  a  crisis  is 
only  a  part  of  a  process,  a  progress.* 

Religious  education  also  recognizes  that  all  it  may  learn 
about  the  laws  of  life  is  but  the  discovery  of  God,  that,  just 
as  the  man  who  grows  the  apples  knows  that  the  whole  uni- 
verse grows  them  with  him,  so  we  who  would  grow  lives  are 
not  so  blinded  with  pride  of  learning  as  to  imagine  that  we 
work  alone,  or  to  think  that  all  we  do  is  comparable  to  all 
that  is  being  done.  The  educator  is  only  the  husbandman. 
God  works,  but  the  hand  of  the  husbandman  is  absolutely 
essential;  God  does  not  cause  orchards  to  be  without  it. 
And  the  husbandman's  knowledge  is  absolutely  essential; 
nature  will  not  remedy  his  mistakes  or  make  up  for  his 

*  On  the  normality  of  the  conversion  experience,  see  The  Psychology 
of  Religion,  by  E.  D.  Starbuck  (1899),  and  compare  chap.  X  of  The 
Psychology  of  Religion,  by  G.  A.  Coe  (1916).  See  also  James's  Varieties 
of  Religious  Experience,  1902,  lectures  IX  and  X. 


108  THE  EDUCATIONAL  EVANGEL 

ignorance.  The  more  we  realize  the  worth  of  a  person  the 
greater  will  be  our  reverence  for  the  processes  of  developing 
lives,  the  more  patiently  will  we  seek  to  know  the  laws  of 
lives  and  the  greater  will  be  our  obedience  to  them.  The 
very  principle  of  vitality,  of  dealing  with  lives,  makes  relig- 
ious education  religious;  it  is  a  serious  endeavor  to  take 
our  right  part  in  the  spiritual  order  and  plan  of  the  universe. 
So  the  educational  ideal  holds  the  faith  that  the  evan- 
gelistic aim  of  religious  persons  in  a  religious  society  is 
normally  achieved  by  the  essentially  religious  process  of  the 
growth  of  lives  toward  Godlikeness.  Its  method  is  con- 
tinuous, according  to  law,  comprehending  all  lifers  experi- 
ences and  possibilities,  knowing  no  fixed  goal,  but  moving 
forward  into  newer  and  larger  fulness  of  life.  It  realizes  the 
promise  of  an  evangel  by  revealing  the  manner  in  which 
that  promise  may  be  fulfilled.  It  shows  how  we  learn  to 
live  the  life  of  love  in  the  divine  family.  It  trains  us  to  live 
that  life  increasingly  and  habitually.  It  prepares  us  to  do 
the  work  by  which  the  promise  of  a  divine  social  order  is 
to  be  realized.  It  is  the  method  by  which  the  message  of 
evangelism  is  fulfilled. 

REFERENCES 

BusHNELL,  Horace,  Christian  Nurture  (Scribners,  revised  edition,  1917). 
McKiNLEY,  C.  E.,  Educational  Evangelism  (Pilgrim  Press,  1905). 
Hardy,  E.  N.,  The  Churches  and  Educated  Men  (Pilgrim  Press,  1904). 
CoE,  George  A.,  The  Psychology  of  Religion  (in  particular  chap.  X) 

(University  of  Chicago  Press,  1916). 
Conde,  Bertha,  The  Human  Element  in  the  Making  of  a  Christian 

(Scribners,  1917). 


CHAPTER  X 
THE  WORLD-WIDE  PROGRAMME 

The  evangel  of  the  church  has  one  peculiarly  thrilling 
aspect;  it  is  world-embracing.  The  evangelistic  aim  is  a 
world  society  united  in  the  relations  of  a  single  family  under 
the  divine  fatherhood.  No  church  can  be  loyal  to  that  aim 
so  long  as  it  thinks  in  purely  local  terms.  No  educational 
programme  can  be  complete  so  long  as  it  is  only  parochial. 
What  a  wonderful  dream,  an  imperial  vision — the  picture 
of  a  world  society — to  be  held  by  a  small  sect  of  lowly  men 
and  women  in  the  early  centuries !  But  to-day  it  is  fast  com- 
ing to  full  realization,  not  alone  through  the  ministry  of  the 
churches  but  by  the  movements  of  commerce,  industry, 
and  politics. 

The  church  of  to-day  is  part  of  a  world  society.  The 
old  order  of  local  and  national  isolation  has  passed;  the 
new  dawns  with  a  world  consciousness.  The  polarization  of 
population  in  the  cities  has  developed  new  habits  of  social 
living.  Commerce  and  industry,  serving  and  laying  tribute 
on  all  parts  of  the  world,  have  made  each  man  increasingly 
dependent  on  all  others.  There  has  been  a  like  exchange 
and  interplay  of  thought  throughout  the  world.  We  are 
thinking  in  unity.  The  weaving  of  a  vast,  intricate,  and 
efficient  system  of  communication  by  rapid  transit,  tele- 
phones, rural  mail-delivery,  and  wireless  has  created  a  ner- 
vous system  for  all  mankind  that  gives  us  a  common  life. 

109 


no  THE  WORLD-WIDE  PROGRAMME 

No  parts  of  the  world  are  any  longer  remote.     No  part  can 
say  to  another:  "I  have  no  need  of  thee."* 

WORLD-NEIGHBORING 

Through  the  experiences  of  the  opening  decades  of  the 
twentieth  century  we  have  a  new  world-neighboring.  The 
bands  of  copper  and  steel  had  bound  the  world  with  new 
ties  and  made  us  know  one  another,  but  the  furnace  of  a 
world  at  war  fused  all  together,  and  knowledge  deepened 
into  sympathy.  New  nerves  have  ramified  through  the  body 
of  the  world  life,  nerves  of  intense  and  high  feeling.  We 
have  become  one  in  a  blood  bond.  The  foreigner  and  for- 
eign things  are  no  more;  the  dwellers  in  the  remotest  places 
are  much  more  familiar  to  us  than  the  people  of  the  next- 
door  nation  were  when  we  were  children.  In  a  few  short 
years  we  passed  from  nationalism  to  internationalism,  and 
then  to  world  thought  and  life. 

The  church  does  not  stand  apart  from  such  great  changes. 
A  social  revolution  like  this  profoundly  affects  an  institu- 
tion so  essentially  social.  Such  an  extension  of  neighbor- 
ing, such  an  enriching  of  the  points  of  vital  contact  must 
mean  a  greatly  widened  horizon.  It  must  involve  new  con- 
cepts, new  duties.  Now  that  we  have  come  to  that  world 
consciousness  which  is  so  marvellous  a  fact  in  the  mind  of 
Jesus,  we  must  come  more  completely  to  his  sense  of  the 
world  as  the  object  of  divine  love  and  the  field  of  redemption. 
Will  not  such  an  extension  of  social  vision  lead  away  from 
individualism  in  religion  and  toward  the  social  vision  of  the 
salvation  of  the  whole  human  order? 

*  On  the  spiritual  significance  of^these  changes,  see  Henry  C.  King, 
Moral  and  Religious  Challenge  oj  Our  Times. 


A  PROGRAMME  OF  WORLD  EDUCATION    111 

The  current  changes  in  the  social  order  immediately 
affect  one  part  of  the  work  of  the  church.  They  have  al- 
ready robbed  "home  missions"  of  its  peculiar  romantic 
flavor,  for  the  "wild  West"  is  no  more  and  the  desert  places 
begin  to  blossom  as  the  rose.  They  have  taken  away  alto- 
gether the  former  significance  of  the  phrase  "foreign 
missions,"  for  in  a  world  society,  where  there  are  no  for- 
eigners, there  can  be  no  foreign  missions.  The  same  peo- 
ple are  there,  and  they  have  not  all  changed;  but  we  have 
changed;  we  see  them  with  new  eyes.  They  do  not  need  us 
less;  they  can  claim  us  more.  They  are  foreign  to  us  no 
longer;  they  are  actually — not  in  h}Tnn-book  phrase  alone 
— of  our  family.  Whatever  is  done  for  the  men  and  women 
of  India,  Korea,  China,  Africa  can  no  longer  be  regarded  as 
addenda  to  the  normal  activities  and  programme  of  the 
church.  They  are  not  optional  responsibilities,  so  many 
fifth  wheels  of  which  we  are  childishly  proud.  All  are  part 
of  the  necessary  programme  of  the  church,  a  programme 
which  grows  out  of  the  purpose  of  realizing  religious  char- 
acter and  religious  conditions  in  life.  They  rise  out  of  the 
fact  that  this  social  institution,  the  church,  must  work  in 
the  whole  range  of  its  social  setting. 

A  PROGRAMME   OF  WORLD  EDUCATION 

For  her  own  educational  work  at  home  the  church  must 
reach  out  to  all  the  world.  In  order  that  the  local  church 
may  carry  out  its  programme  of  bringing  the  lives  of  its  own 
people  to  fulness  it  must  insure  for  them  normal  contacts 
with  their  ivJiole  environment.  The  breadth  and  strength  of 
every  life  depends  on  the  variety  and  reality  of  its  contacts. 
A  man  of  narrow,  restricted  interests  cannot  but  be  a  small 


112         THE  WORLD-WIDE  PROGRAMME 

man.  The  farther  one  looks  and  reaches  the  farther  he 
lives.  The  larger  the  spiritual  family  of  which  we  are  a  part 
the  richer  grows  our  own  spiritual  life.  It  is  outreach  that 
enlarges  the  heart.  So  also  into  every  life  there  flow  new 
treasures  of  knowledge  and  new  riches  of  feeling  and  inter- 
est from  each  new  contact  that  it  makes  with  a  wider 
world. 

The  training  of  Christian  character  requires  the  experi- 
ences of  enlarging  social  living.  We  have  to  learn  to  live  in 
a  larger  family.  Our  relation  to  the  far-away  peoples  is  not 
that  of  the  smug,  satisfied,  saved  ones  at  home  who  benevo- 
lently dole  out  doctrine  or  dollars  to  the  lost  in  darkness. 
It  is  closer  and  simpler;  it  rises  out  of  the  fact  that  we  who 
live  so  close  together  have  to  learn  the  art  of  living  together. 
Surely  the  first  step  in  that  art  is  sharing  life  together. 
The  true  missionary  spirit  and  programme  simply  makes  the 
whole  world  our  great  schoolroom  of  the  spiritual  life.  Here 
we  teach  others  to  live  toward  Christ  only  as  we  live  Christly 
toward  them. 

The  missionary  programme  changes  our  own  minds.  We 
will  not  go  far  toward  making  the  world  the  society  of  God 
unless  we  can  take  the  notion  of  the  foreign  out  of  all  our 
relations  to  others.  Somehow  we  must  lose  the  sense  of 
remoteness  and  of  artificial  relations  instituted  and  main- 
tained by  our  altruism.  The  relations  are  inevitable  and 
essential;  we  cannot  escape  from  the  other  man  in  this 
world  order.  And  essentially  he  is  not  an  inferior;  he  is  a 
family  fellow.  He  may  be  different,  but  he  lives  by  the 
same  powers  of  life;  he  is  a  person  and  he  is  bound  up  with 
us  in  this  bundle  of  the  world's  life.  The  educational  task 
of  the  church  is  no  longer  that  of  training  young  people  to 


NEIGHBORING  BY  KNOWING  113 

give  a  dollar  where  they  used,  with  difficulty,  to  divert  a 
penny  from  its  candy  destination.  It  is  no  longer  a  pro- 
gramme of  winning  volunteers  by  either  the  appeal  of  the 
romantic  in  date-palms,  jungles,  and  jinrikishas,  or  the  ap- 
peal of  the  pathetic  lot  of  those  without  the  pale.  It  is  the 
task  of  training  us  all  to  live  in  this  new  great  family  and 
so  to  bear  ourselves  in  all  things  to  all  that  all  men  shall 
rejoice  in  owning  the  one  Father. 

The  programme  of  missionary  education,  then,  in  the 
church,  from  the  very  beginning  in  every  life,  will  seek  to 
develop  the  simple  consciousness  of  living  in  one  common 
social  order  that  embraces  all  men.  It  will,  by  every  means 
in  its  power,  wipe  out  the  notion  of  the  foreigner,  break  down 
and  cast  .out  race  prejudice,  and  build  up  and  make  com- 
mon and  natural  the  thought  of  real,  effective  brotherhood. 
It  will  cease  to  base  appeals  for  missionary  giving  and  effort 
on  the  motive  of  the  far,  remote,  and  unknown,  and  base 
them  on  the  near,  on  the  real,  social  propinquity  of  all  men 
to  ourselves,  on  the  essentially  common  life  we  live.  It  will 
be  directed,  first,  to  the  training  of  motives  and  concepts  of 
life.  This  it  will  accomplish  by  the  development  of  habits 
— habits  of  speech,  of  action,  of  thought.  It  will  bring 
again  the  whole  world  into  the  region  of  normal  religious 
thinking.  We  shall  cease  to  think  of  this  as  the  one  God- 
favored  land,  of  which  the  Almighty  is  especially  proud.  It 
will  save  us  from  national  pharisaism. 

NEIGHBORING  BY  KNOWING 

The  programme  of  missionary  education  will  make  the 
remote  near  and  real  in  just  the  same  way  that  the  unknown 
in  geography  and  ethnology  has  become  familiar  to  us  in 


114  THE  WORLD-WIDE  PROGRAMME 

all  other  affairs.  Travel,  lectures,  pictures,  and  means  of 
communication  have  so  disclosed  life  everywhere  that  were 
we  unexpectedly  dropped  on  the  plaza  of  St.  Mark's  or  be- 
fore the  sweep  of  the  harbor  at  Nagasaki  we  should  know 
our  surroundings.  This  means  more  than  that  architec- 
tural marvels  and  natural  beauties  have  become  familiar; 
it  means  that  we  have  learned  to  know  people  as  they  live 
everywhere.  When  we  have  thus  learned  that  people  are 
people  everywhere  we  have  taken  an  exceedingly  important 
step  toward  world  thinking  and  feeling.  So  missionary 
education  by  the  travel-picture  method  is  not  a  whet- 
ting of  generosity  by  appeals  to  curiosity  or  to  pity;  it 
is  education  into  the  normality  of  the  common  life  of  all, 
into  deeper,  more  constant  and  real  sympathy  with  all 
life.* 

Such  education  broadens  out,  even  on  the  plane  of  knowl- 
edge, in  many  different  ways.  It  will  mean  such  a  study  of 
the  development  and  the  romance  of  missions  as  shall  make 
us  see  how  the  gospel  has  been  wiping  out  walls  of  partition, 
paving  the  way  for  great  social  changes,  and  making  this  a 
new  world.  It  brings  to  the  young  the  heroes  of  modern 
religion.  Actually  knowing  the  lives  of  the  great  leaders 
will  effect  a  new  realization  of  the  eternal  law  that  life  can 
be  given  to  the  world  only  by  the  laying  down  of  life.  It 
will  help  us  to  see  what  life  in  this  world  order  must  cost 
us  if  we  are  to  live  as  religious  men.  Thus  to  think  of  the 
continuous,  unending  sacrifice  which  love  offers  up  for  life 
is  to  acquire  the  habit  of  thinking  of  all  life  in  like  terms. 

*  For  the  materials  of  such  study,  see  particularly  the  numerous 
publications  of  The  Missionary  Education  Movement,  and  especially 
Diffendorfer's  Missionary  Education  in  the  Home  and  School. 


KNOWING  THE  WORLD  LIFE  115 

KNOWING  THE  WORLD  LIFE 

Missionary  education  must  also  mean  for  all  thoughtful 
persons  a  thorough  understanding  of  the  elements  of  our 
world  problems.  Without  this  there  is  little  hope  of  their 
solution.  To-day  we  are  actually  engaged  in  shaping  a 
new  social  order,  in  making  a  new  world.  Such  a  task 
we  cannot  lightly  attempt;  if  it  has  any  reality  it  calls 
us  to  a  thorough  understanding  of  all  its  factors.  It 
will  require  some  knowledge  of  the  political  life,  the  so- 
cial customs,  the  traditions,  and  the  religious  ideals  and 
forces  of  all  the  parts  of  this  human  family.  We  shall  do 
more  than  know  how  people  cook  and  eat  and  build  houses. 
If  we  are  to  live  with  them  we  will  want  to  know  how  they 
think,  how  their  minds  work,  what  hopes  they  fashion  in 
the  brain. 

Some  will  say  that  this  large  programme  calls  for  more 
study  than  any  one  can  give  to-day,  but  there  is  nothing 
this  age  needs  more  than  a  large  programme.  We  are  most 
of  us  so  busy  because  we  are  trying  to  do  so  large  a  number 
of  insignificant  things;  we  have  no  great,  overwhelming 
values  that  force  all  other  things  into  their  relative  places. 
A  few  people  are  supremely  happy  because  life  does  mean 
for  them  so  many  tremendous  things.  The  man  with  the 
world  on  his  heart  and  in  his  mind  is  happier  by  far  than  any 
to  whom  it  is  known  as  but  a  plaything.  To  have  such  a 
sense  of  the  reality  of  this  world  problem  will  keep  it  ever 
before  us,  will  make  us  study  its  elements,  work  for  the  least 
grain  of  its  solution,  and  hold  ever  the  hope  of  the  new  world. 
It  will  make  new  men  of  us  all.  It  will  set  the  world  in  our 
hearts.    It  will  thus  broaden,  deepen,  and  heighten  our 


116  THE  WORLD-WIDE  PROGRAMME 

very  selves.    It  will  give  us  what  Jesus  had — a,  world  for 
which  to  live. 

LEARNING  THE  ART  OF  WORLD  LIVING 

The  programme  of  education  in  the  missionary  spirit  in 
the  church  will  be  also  a  programme  of  actual  instruction  and 
training  in  the  ways  of  world  living.  At  present  we  teach 
the  young  that  God  loved  the  world,  but  we  do  not  teach 
them  how  to  love  it  and  still  less  how  to  live  in  it.  The  one 
is  impossible  without  the  other.  You  cannot  live  in  this 
world  unless  you  love  it,  and  you  cannot  love  it  until  you 
really  live  in  it.  Out  of  the  proper  emphasis  on  the  duty  of 
the  church  definitely  to  teach  the  art  of  actual  Christian 
living,  of  the  right  life  in  the  family,  on  the  streets,  in  the 
school,  on  the  playground,  and  in  all  relations,  grows  the 
farther  and  wider  one  of  teaching  the  art  of  living  the  world 
life.  Supposing,  to  be  very  specific,  instead  of  spending 
years  tracing  the  wanderings  of  the  Hebrews,  we  should 
actually  face  the  problem  of  walking  our  ways  of  life  with 
the  modern  Hebrews.  No  one  is  so  blind  as  not  to  see  that 
problem.  Gentile  and  Jew  do  not  always  agree.  In  the 
young,  especially  in  public  school  and  other  schools,  the 
bitterness  of  race  prejudice  grows  apace.  We  all  know  it  is 
there;  we  hear  it  in  sneering  phrase  and  see  it  in  social 
ostracism.  But  what  does  the  church  school  do  about  it? 
How  many  teachers  help  the  child  to  see  the  Christian's 
duty  toward  the  Jewish  child  ?  How  many  deliberately  set 
out  to  train  Christian  children  to  be  gentle  and  Christlike 
to  their  Jewish  playmates?  If  we  think  that  the  situation 
is  insoluble  we  acknowledge  that  the  world  order  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  is  impossible.     If  we  think  we  can  shut  our 


LEARNING  THE  ART  OF  WORLD  LIVING    117 

eyes  to  the  situation,  or  can  afford  to  hate  any  people,  we 
deny  the  Teacher  of  human  love,  we  steadily  augment  the 
shame  that  our  present  attitude  calls  on  his  head.  It  is 
not  an  easy  question  but,  if  ever  we  are  to  realize  the  spirit 
and  aim  of  world  missions  we  too  must  begin  at  Jerusalem. 
It  is  so  much  easier  to  feel  brotherly  to  a  mud-caked  African 
who  stays  in  Africa  than  to  many  a  representative  of  an- 
other race  who  comes  into  our  city  block.  Education  in  the 
missionary  programme  of  the  church  will  surely  mean  train- 
ing in  Christian  living  with  all  mankind.* 

Out  of  such  a  programme  of  training  to  live  the  world  life, 
to  develop  the  world  sympathy  and  habit  of  thought,  grows 
an  intelligent,  enthusiastic  support  of  all  that  operates  to 
realize  here  the  God-willed  world  order  of  one  divine  family. 
Men  and  women  no  longer  support  this  or  that  home  or 
foreign  missionary  society  as  such;  they  see  the  society  as 
a  tool  to  be  used,  developed,  or  scrapped  according  to  its 
efficiency  in  realizing  the  great  purpose.  They  support  a 
programme.  They  are  not  interested  in  missionary  opera- 
tions as  ends  in  themselves  but  as  means,  as  parts  of  the 
machinery  that  accomplishes  a  magnificent  end,  and  there- 
fore their  interest  is  the  greater  in  the  means  because  the 
end  is  so  great.  They  cease  to  be  blind  and  therefore  stingy 
givers;  they  support  intelligently  a  world  work  and  they  will 
know  and  cannot  be  misled  as  to  whether  the  machinery  is 
doing  the  work  or  not. 

It  is  not  strange  that  the  missionary  programme  is  a  big 
problem  in  the  church  to-day.  Emphasis  on  the  machinery, 
the  societies  and  missionaries,  has  often  magnified  them 

*  On  the  problem  in  the  United  States,  see  The  New  Immigration, 
by  Peter  Roberts,  1912. 


118  THE  WORLD-WIDE  PROGRAMME 

into  ends.  Emphasis  on  their  support  has  often  obscured  the 
tremendous  values  in  their  results.  And  when  we  think 
of  the  societies  as  ends  we  become  suspicious  of  their  value. 
But  in  the  light  of  a  magnificent  world  aim  we  are  able  to 
judge  calmly  and  rightly  whether  the  present  methods  are 
wise,  whether  they  are  the  ones  by  which  the  Christian 
world  society  is  to  be  realized.  In  the  light  of  that  aim  we 
ought  to  help  youth  to  understand  the  work  of  the  modern 
societies.  They  would  find  in  many  of  their  present-day 
programmes  guidance  on  the  problems  of  the  church  at  home. 
In  many  instances  the  work  in  India,  in  China,  and  other 
lands  is  demonstrating  the  real  function  of  a  church.  Prob- 
lems are  being  solved  there  on  which  we  are  still  debating 
here.  The  solutions  have  come  because  the  leaders  have 
seen  the  world  vision  and  have  had  the  courage  to  follow  it. 
A  knowledge  of  the  realities  of  present-day  missions  is  a  val- 
uable part  of  training  for  home  work.  It  further  strengthens 
faith  in  the  educational  programme.  The  great  progress  of 
work  abroad  has  been  seen  in  emphasis  upon  educational 
methods.  Some  day  the  church  at  home  will  learn  from  the 
church  abroad. 

The  very  experience  of  a  world  programme  has  had  a  re- 
markable effect  on  the  workers  abroad.  It  has  taught  them 
to  place  first  the  larger  values.  It  has  set  in  the  foreground 
the  ultimate  purpose  of  developing  lives  into  a  religious 
society.  By  that  aim  every  method  must  be  tested.  Toward 
that  aim  all  our  training  should  be  directed.  Religious  edu- 
cation includes  a  programme  based  on  the  vision  of  the 
world  coming  into  the  common  family  life  of  God — a  vision 
that  gives  a  new  conscience,  a  new  motive,  and  a  new 
method. 


LEARNING  THE  ART  OF  WORLD  LIVING     119 

Missionary  education,  then,  is  simply  a  phase  of  religious 
education.  It  is  essential  to  complete  training  in  Christian 
living.  Its  aim  is  much  more  significant  than  the  develop- 
ment of  support  for  missionary  enterprises;  it  seeks  to  de- 
velop persons  who  fully  live  the  world  life  in  a  religious 
spirit.  It  accomplishes  its  special  purposes  by  instruction 
designed  to  reveal  our  religious  relations  to  life  everjnvhere 
in  the  world  and  by  training  in  discharging  the  duties  of 
those  relationships.  It  uses  all  those  organized  agencies 
which  have  been  created  to  develop  and  guide  the  churches 
in  living  the  world  life,  and  directs  an  intelligent  participa- 
tion in  their  work  as  part  of  its  plan  of  training. 

REFERENCES 

Beard,  Frederica,  "  Graded  Missionary  Education  in  the  Church 

School "  (American  Baptist,  1917). 
Carver,  W.  O.,  Missions  and  Modern  Thought  (Macmillan,  1910). 
DiFFENDORFER,  R.  E.,  Missionary  Education  in  Home  and  School 

(Abingdon,  1917). 
Douglass,  H.  P.,   The  New  Home  Missions  (Missionary  Education 

Movement,  1914). 
Faunce,  W.  H.  p..  Social  Aspects  of  Foreign  Missions  (Missionary 

Education  Movement,  1914). 
Men,  John  R.,  The  Pastor  and  Modern  Missions  (Student  Volunteer 

Movement,  1904). 
Education  in  Relation  to  the  Christianization  of  National  Life,  vol.  Ill 

of  Report  of  Edinburgh  Conference,  1910  (Revell). 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE  SOCIAL  LIFE 

Four  great  educational  opportunities  are  offered  to  the 
church  in  what  is  loosely  called  its  social  life:  (1)  the  social 
grouping  of  persons  permits  of  training  in  social  relations; 
(2)  it  affords  opportunities  for  the  growth  of  group  loyal- 
ties; (3)  it  facilitates  organization  for  service;  and  (4)  it 
furnishes  conditions  for  helpful  social  worship.  Since  the 
last  of  these  is  considered  in  the  section  on  "Worship/*  we 
can  confine  ourselves  to  the  church  as  a  school  of  the  social 
life  and  as  a  community  that  develops  group  loyalties. 

THE  SCHOOL  OF  A  SOCIETY 

Essentially  a  school  is  a  social  group.  It  can  perform 
its  primary  work  of  instruction  only  as  it  gathers  lives  in 
groups.  Even  for  the  purposes  of  imparting  information 
and  training  in  habits  it  must  organize  persons  not  as  in- 
dividuals but  as  groups.  But  every  teacher  knows,  what 
so  many  parents  do  not  see,  that  the  school  educates,  not 
alone  by  instruction,  but  still  more  by  associating  lives  to- 
gether in  the  habits  of  living.  There  is  no  schooling  where 
this  is  not  done.  A  schoolroom  is  more  than  a  child  plus 
a  lesson  plus  a  teacher;  it  is  rather  many  children  feeling  a 
common  aim,  under  the  cumulative  power  of  their  many 
lives,  plus  the  stimulus  of  a  purpose  and  a  guide.* 

*  On  the  school  as  a  social  organization,  see  Irving  King,  in  Social 
Aspects  of  Education,  1912,  particularly  chaps.  I  to  IV;  and  John 
Dewey,  School  and  Society,  1910. 

120 


THE  SCHOOL  OF  A  SOCIETY  121 

In  school  children  learn  the  larger  social  life  through 
their  smaller  social  group.  Education  is  developing  per- 
sons by  the  experiences  of  the  larger  life.  Children  are 
learning  to  live  in  their  communities,  getting  the  art  of  social 
living  by  social  living.  It  is  a  familiar  truism  that  they  learn 
more  on  the  playground  than  at  their  desks;  in  the  former 
the  social  group  is  larger,  has  a  wider  range  of  free  activity, 
depends  on  its  own  guidance  and  initiative,  and  develops 
more  intense  activity. 

For  purposes  of  education  two  people  are  much  more 
than  one  plus  one;  they  are  the  sum  of  all  the  social  feel- 
ings, co-operations,  stimuli  that  develop  as  mind  and  per- 
sonality act  and  react  one  on  another.  The  cumulative 
process  of  increasing  power  goes  on  in  a  progressive  ratio 
as  the  number  increases.  It  is  true  that  if  one  shall  chase 
a  thousand,  two  shall  put  ten  thousand  to  flight.  The 
group  consists  of  persons  doing  at  least  two  things:  adjust- 
ing themselves  one  to  another,  each  to  all  and  all  to  each, 
and  stimulating  each  other,  as  knowledge,  feeling,  and  will 
grow  in  each  and  are  shared  by  all  until  the  feeling  develops 
cumulatively  to  a  mass  that  moves  each  one.  This  is  more 
than  a  matter  of  addition  or  accretion.  The  crowd  really 
creates  a  new  life. 

We  all  know  that  four  people  always  do  the  same  thing 
in  unison  much  more  easily,  effectively,  and  usually  more 
pleasurably,  than  the  same  four  doing  the  same  thing  inde- 
pendently. Have  we  considered  how  that  simple  fact  may 
be  used  in  the  church  for  the  development  of  characters  and 
usefulness  ?  The  minister  often  tends  to  think  of  a  congre- 
gation of  largely  unrelated  persons.  He  is  likely  to  measure 
his  work  in  terms  of  so  many  individuals  affected  in  cer- 


122  THE  SOCIAL  LIFE 

tain  ways.  He  seldom  considers,  in  bringing  a  group  to- 
gether, in  what  ways — under  the  principles  of  human  think- 
ing, feeling,  and  willing — the  forces  that  are  in  the  group, 
and  not  in  the  individuals,  may  be  used.  He  does  not  have 
a  working  plan,  based  on  the  laws  of  persons  and  society, 
which  will  determine  his  method  with  his  several  groups  or 
with  his  entire  group. 

There  are  few  fields  of  knowledge  more  essential  to  the 
minister  of  the  church  than  that  of  social  psychology,  and 
few  more  helpful  and  fruitful,  provided,  of  course,  the  subject 
be  based  upon  an  understanding  of  the  simple,  elementary 
principles  of  general  psychology.  He  deals  with  groups  of 
persons  for  spiritual  ends. 

He  deals  with  them  principally  in  groups:  he  preaches 
to  a  congregation;  he  leads  the  worship  of  a  host;  he 
is  the  organizer  of  groups  for  purposes  of  instruction 
and  service.  Just  as  he  ought  to  know  what  is  taking 
place  in  the  minds  of  people  as  they  worship  and  work 
together,  and  how  the  processes  serve  the  aim  he  has 
in  mind,  so  he  ought  most  clearly  to  know  how  these 
processes  are  modified,  intensified,  and  changed  by  the  fact 
of  their  being  in  groups,  with  many  minds  and  wills 
moving  at  the  same  time.  When  he  can  thus  think  of  a 
congregation  it  becomes  not  a  clinic  in  which  one  is  im- 
passively, coldly  conducting  certain  experiments,  nor  a  col- 
lection of  isolated  individuals,  but  in  itself  a  force  at  work. 
It  is  active  because  it  is  associated.  A  congregation  is 
like  an  assembling  of  certain  chemicals  which,  unrelated, 
lie  apparently  inert,  but  as  soon  as  they  are  associated 
begin  to  operate  in  new  ways,  become  a  force  by  associa- 
tion and  integration. 


THE  ENLARGING  SOCIETIES  123 

A  SCHOOL  OF  SOCIAL  LIVING 

The  great  art  of  life  is  the  art  of  living  together.  The 
fact  that  we  are  knowing,  feeling,  willing,  acting  persons 
set  in  a  world  of  other  like  persons  is  the  great  basic,  de- 
terminative fact  of  existence.  The  adjustment  of  all  these 
persons,  like  molecules  in  the  mass  that  whirl  and  shift  and 
shape  themselves  together,  is  the  source  of  all  our  morality, 
all  our  art,  our  business,  invention,  and  progress,  and, 
naturally,  of  all  our  problems.  The  actual  individual,  if 
ever  we  could  have  one,  who  really  lived  altogether  alone, 
might  have  a  very  simple  existence;  but  it  is  certain  he  would 
neither  live  very  long  nor  grow  very  much. 

The  church,  like  every  other  popular  institution,  deals 
with  us  as  we  live  this  common  social  life.  It  deals  with 
us  as  we  are  in  our  environment,  where  the  personal  element, 
the  realities  of  the  many  other  lives  about  us,  is  the  most 
potent  force.  We  are  all  in  this  more  or  less  closely  fused 
mass  of  humanity.  We  are  not  the  blind,  helpless  products 
of  the  mass.  But  we  cannot  escape  from  it,  we  cannot 
shield  ourselves  from  its  pressure  and  impress,  and  we  can- 
not escape  its  relations  nor  the  fact  and  responsibility  of 
our  relations  to  it  in  all  its  parts. 

THE  ENLARGING  SOCIETIES 

The  life  of  man  moves  forward  in  ever  enlarging  and 
more  complex  social  groups.  His  world  is  first  his  mother's 
arms.  It  enlarges  gradually  into  a  universe  bounded  by 
the  walls  of  home.  This  soon  pushes  itself  into  the  larger 
world  of  the  neighborhood,  playmates  and  friends  and 
relatives.    Some  day  he  steps  out  into  a  much  larger  world: 


124  THE  SOCIAL  LIFE 

the  school  calls  him  and  he  becomes  a  part  of  the  life  of  the 
state;  it  is  a  world  that  perhaps  appals  him  by  its  size;  he 
wonders  whether  he  can  ever  know  all  these  boys  and  girls, 
whether  he  can  learn  their  games  and  become  familiar  with 
all  the  unwritten  laws  of  this  society.  But  he  finds  his 
way  into  that  life,  and  the  normal  child  gradually  acquires 
the  habits  of  social  living  in  the  tremendously  effective 
society  of  the  school.  Few  fully  realize  all  that  this  means; 
in  the  American  public  school,  real  public  education  consists 
in  accustoming  the  child  to  live  happily,  harmoniously,  with 
that  strangely  mixed  social  group  coming  from  many  kinds 
of  homes,  from  parentage  of  many  climes,  and  yet  all  mak- 
ing up  the  social  unit  of  the  American  people.  He  is  learn- 
ing there  the  greatest  lesson  of  his  life,  the  art  of  living  in 
his  large  social  group.  Later  the  group  may  get  much  larger. 
By  the  abilities  gained  in  study  he  may  be  able  to  think  the 
round  world  into  his  society,  he  may  have  real  relations  with 
all  men,  not  only  around  the  present  world,  but  through  the 
ages  that  have  been,  and  his  society  may  come  to  include  the 
great  of  all  time.  The  church  helps  him,  as  the  home  also 
should,  to  see  a  yet  larger  society,  a  fellowship  that  knows  no 
limits  of  time  or  space,  that  reaches  beyond  all  human  per- 
sons and  makes  one  a  member  of  the  family  of  God,  conscious 
of  a  spiritual  life  that  embraces  all.  Here  is  the  last  and 
widest  of  all  the  circles  of  man^s  progressive  social  experi- 
ences, each  one  necessary  and  each  opening  to  the  willing 
mind  a  way  into  the  wider  one. 

THE  SOCIAL  LIFE  OF  THE  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

The  church  may  function  in  a  number  of  these  circles  by 
furnishing  necessary  experiences  and  means  of  development. 


SOCIAL  LIFE  OF  THE  CHURCH  SCHOOL    125 

For  the  young  it  offers  small  groups  of  their  own  kind,  in  the 
church-school  classes  and  the  like.  Such  groups  are  of  pe- 
culiar efficiency  because  of  their  size  and  flexibility.  The 
class  of  six  or  eight  has  just  about  the  right  number  of  per- 
sons for  boys  or  girls.  It  affords  very  close  social  contacts; 
it  permits  the  working  out  of  the  problems  of  adjustment  to 
other  lives  in  simple  forms  of  experience  and  under  imme- 
diate and  intimate  guidance. 

The  social-training  values  of  church-school  groups  have 
been  quite  generally  neglected  or  used  without  serious 
appreciation  of  their  significance.  Undoubtedly,  under 
existing  limitations  of  time,  instruction  must  be  the  prin- 
cipal activity  in  such  classes,  but  social  adjustments  and 
habituations  go  on  all  through  the  process  of  instruction 
and  constitute  a  persistent  activity,  especially  effective  be- 
cause free  from  consciousness.  Socialization  continues  all 
the  time  the  group  is  held  together.  In  many  ways  it  aids 
the  work  of  instruction;  but  it  does  not  lessen  the  need  of 
making  it  efficient  and  scientifically  sound.  To  realize  and 
to  develop  these  social  potencies  is  to  develop  the  educa- 
tional power  of  the  group  as  a  group. 

Some  teachers  are  able  to  see  the  social  values;  some  owe 
their  success,  in  spite  of  lack  of  training  and  even  in  spite 
of  any  broad  knowledge  of  subjects  taught,  to  their  powers 
of  social  organization  and  direction.  But  always  this  work 
needs  supervision.  The  task  is  not  an  easy  one.  It  calls 
for  sympathy,  tact,  and  imagination.  Perfunctory  direction 
will  not  suffice.  There  is  no  assurance  of  anything  effec- 
tively social  in  a  committee  on  "social  life."  That  easily 
degenerates  into  an  agency  for  promoting  artificial  cordiality 
and  habitual  handshaking.    The  best  forms  of  social  gather- 


126  THE  SOCIAL  LIFE 

ings  come  normally  out  of  the  desires  of  the  groups.  What 
is  needed  is  leaders  of  vision  and  insight  to  set  the  social 
processes  at  work.  The  minister  should  know  what  is  tak- 
ing place  wherever  lives  are  grouped.  His  helpers,  the  direc- 
tor of  religious  education  and  the  superintendents  of  the 
school,  should  have  an  appreciation  of  social  education. 
Then  they  will  be  able  to  suggest  forms  of  grouping  and 
types  of  activity  which  will  make  the  social  potencies 
effective. 

These  considerations  will  lead  every  teacher  and  director 
to  watch  the  work  of  classes,  not  only  with  reference  to 
attendance  and  lesson-learning  but  also  with  reference  to 
life-living  and  especially  as  to  personal  relationships.  They 
will  bring  natural  groups  together  on  every  possible  occa- 
sion, under  varieties  of  situations.  They  will  direct  them 
not  only  to  sit  together  but  to  play  together,  to  work  to- 
gether, to  eat  together,  and  to  attempt  new  enterprises. 
They  will  help  them  to  develop  group  guidance  and  autonomy 
through  simple  organizations,  to  learn  habitually  to  take 
certain  attitudes  toward  others  and  toward  other  groups 
by  forms  of  directed  association  and  service.* 

SOCIAL  LIFE   OF  YOUNG  PEOPLE 

The  value  of  social  groupings  is  easily  seen  when  we  come 
to  the  high-school  period  and  to  young  manhood  and 
womanhood.  But  in  the  churches  these  groups  have  not 
been  studied  with  reference  to  their  essential  social  possi- 

*  See,  on  forms  of  possible  service  for  children  and  classes,  chap. 
XIV  in  Efficiency  in  the  Sunday  School,  Cope  (Doran,  1912);  Social 
Service  in  the  Sunday  School  (Univ.  of  Chicago,  1914),  and  reports  of  the 
Church  of  the  Disciples,  Boston. 


SOCIAL  LIFE  OF  YOUNG  PEOPLE  127 

bilities  from  the  point  of  view  either  of  instruction  or  of 
worship.  Hence  we  have  either  ''  adult  classes  "  in  the  school 
or  a  "young  people's"  organization  conducting  so-called 
devotional  meetings  and  occasionally  engaging  in  forms  of 
church  and  community  service.  That  the  types  of  group- 
ings for  young  people  in  the  church  have  furnished  oppor- 
tunities for  courtship  and  mating  seems  to  have  been  re- 
garded as  a  reproach,  as  though  such  inevitable  selections 
would  better  have  been  made  elsewhere  rather  than  in  the 
church  and  at  other  times.  But  that  reproach  rises  because 
we  are  not  accustomed  to  think  sanely  of  courtship  and  to 
regard  its  higher  significances.  We  need  to  see  that  one  of 
the  best  things  any  church  could  do  would  be  to  furnish 
healthy  opportunities  for  young  people  to  know  one  another, 
to  know  those  of  the  opposite  sex  in  their  groups,  and  to 
select  their  mates  where  the  environment  would  suggest 
the  highest  aims  and  ideals. 

All  the  arguments  for  coeducation  in  the  college  apply  to 
wise  provision  for  the  social  contacts  of  young  people  in  the 
churches.  The  fact  that  they  do  not  avail  themselves  gen- 
erally of  such  opportunities  as  the  churches  afford  is  due 
not  to  any  inherent,  natural  depravity  on  their  part  but  to 
our  fatuous  hope  that  they  will  adapt  themselves  to  our  in- 
flexible institutions  and  methods,  instead  of  accepting  the 
fact  that  the  institution  and  method  must  adapt  itself  to 
the  life  it  would  aid  and  lead.  The  gregarious  instincts  of 
young  people  stand  out  and  are  so  commonly  recognized 
that  we  ought  long  ago  to  have  made  larger  provisions  for 
their  needs.  It  matters  not  that  we  may  think  that  young 
people  are  simply  frivolous  and  purposeless  in  following 
these  instincts  or  that  the  group  of  young  folks  is  without 


128  THE  SOCIAL  LIFE 

serious  purposes.  In  their  gatherings  they  are  living  out 
their  lives,  and  they  are  learning,  quite  unconsciously,  the 
social  life.  Perhaps  we  would  prefer  to  have  them  less 
frivolous.  But  we  adults  find  it  hard  to  understand  their 
ways.  Perhaps  we  wish  they  would  sit  around  in  the  sedate 
circles  of  our  grandmothers'  time.  But  just  as  we  have 
changed  our  social  ways  so  must  they.  We  cannot  force 
them  to  anticipate  their  later  stages.  Somewhere  these 
young  people  will  gather  and  they  will  be  just  themselves. 
Fortunately  large  numbers  of  them  will  be  found  in  homes 
in  couples  and  in  groups  just  as,  probably,  they  always  have 
been  found.  But  many  thousands  will  be  found  in  other 
places  less  innocent  and  more  harmful.  The  church  can 
hardly  reproach  them  for  gathering  in  dance-halls  and  at 
amusement  parks  so  long  as  she  makes  no  provision  for  their 
inevitable  gregariousness  and  affords  no  opportunity  for 
the  free  exercise  of  their  social  instincts. 

SOCIAL  ENDEAVORS 

There  has  been  a  marked  tendency  to  neglect  those 
gatherings  which  were  called  simply  social.  This  tendency 
has  developed  partly  as  a  result^  of  the  belief  that  they  lay 
outside  the  spiritual  function  of  the  church  and  still  more 
because  the  social  instincts  of  the  young  have  been  capi- 
talized by  agents  of  commercial  amusement.  There  was  a 
profound  reason  for  calling  these  informal  and  often  ap- 
parently purposeless  gatherings  "socials,"  for  they  were 
really  the  exercises  of  the  young  in  the  social  lift;  they  were 
the  endeavors  of  those  who  were  newly  entered  consciously 
on  social  living  to  adjust  themselves  and  learn  its  art. 

The  young  people's  society  was  one  of  the  outstanding 


SOCIAL  ENDEAVORS  129 

forms  of  this  type  of  social  grouping.  It  succeeded  in  the 
degree  that  it  met  the  natural  spiritual  social  needs  of 
young  people;  it  failed  as  it  was  diverted  to  other  and  facti- 
tious ends.  The  history  of  these  societies  shows  how  irre- 
pressible are  the  social  instincts  of  youth.  In  the  face  of 
opposition,  in  spite  of  exploitation  and  regardless  of  many 
instances  of  decline  and  failure  they  persist  in  one  form  or 
another.  We  ought  to  take  time  to  consider  this  type  of 
organization  in  the  light  of  the  essential  nature  and  needs 
of  those  in  the  group.* 

Greater  wisdom  is  now  being  used  in  the  direction  of  the 
energies  of  young  people.  We  recognize  the  passion  of  the 
young  for  activity  and,  along  with  this,  their  strong  ten- 
dency toward  idealization.  They  are  the  people  who  under 
normal  conditions  believe  in  a  better  world,  a  finer  society, 
in  the  possibility  of  realizing  life's  ideals,  and  who  have  the 
energy  to  attempt  to  make  real  their  ideals.  Wise  direction 
of  these  groups  into  fields  of  ideal  community  service  is 
bound  to  be  educationally  helpful.  In  service  they  give 
expression  to  their  ideals  and  they  learn  to  take  life  in  terms 
of  helpful  work.  By  experience  they  learn  the  conditions 
and  means  of  service  and  Jin  the  course  of  such  work  they 
also  learn  to  live  and  work  together.  They  engage  in  sur- 
veys of  communities,  in  direct  relief  of  distress,  in  ministries 
to  the  sorrowing,  the  needy,  the  shut-ins,  prisoners,  and  the 
sick.  They  engage  in  civic-betterment  work,  in  promoting 
plans  for  community  improvement,  and  in  civic  and  po- 
litical work. 

The  dangers  are  that  this  work  shall  become  consciously 

*See  chapter  on  **  Young  People,"  where  the  special  needs  of  this 
group  are  discussed. 


130  THE  SOCIAL  LIFE 

that  of  ''uplift,"  work  in  which  the  worker  assumes  an 
attitude  of  superiority,  or  that  it  shall  be  a  result  of  mere 
zeal  for  reforming  in  order  to  make  others  do  the  things 
we  would  like  to  have  them  do.  It  may  be  only  the  pur- 
poseless ambition  to  stir  up  something,  to  make  at  least  a 
fuss,  and  to  carry  on  a  campaign  of  mere  criticism  and 
often  vilification.  Most  of  these  dangers  are  inherent, 
however,  in  any  kind  of  associated  effort  for  community 
and  civic  betterment. 

One  danger  especially  confronts  the  success  and  main- 
tenance of  this  form  of  social  activity  for  young  people, 
and  that  is  that  it  shall  lose  its  essential  social  qualities  and 
fail  to  furnish  opportunities  for  developing  the  group  feeling 
and  spirit.  Reformers  are  prone  each  to  sally  forth  on 
his  own  mission  and  to  become  sterile  products  of  zeal 
without  human  feeling  and  social  moderation.  The  young 
need  to  spend  much  of  their  time  in  their  own  group.  Such 
time  can  be  wisely  used  in  reporting  on  their  experiences 
and  in  general  conference  on  their  plans.  The  same  young 
people  who  with  spontaneous  enthusiasm  spend  hours  dis- 
cussing plans  for  what  we  call  a  "social  function'*  will  show 
the  same  joy  and  zeal,  the  same  animation  in  discussing 
plans  for  useful,  altruistic  social  work. 

Attention  is  directed  to  activities  because  they  are  the 
clue  to  social  organization.  Definite  projects  of  usefulness 
are  like  magnetic  poles  inviting  like-minded  persons.  The 
project  fuses  the  group  into  social  unity.  As  it  is  carried 
forward  it  enriches  the  social  life.  The  pleasures  of  co- 
operation and  of  many  common  experiences  create  strong 
spiritual  ties.  Working  together  is  the  best  way  of  learning 
to  live  together.    The  project  w^hich  thus  unites  a  group 


SOCIAL  ENDEAVORS  131 

owes  much  of  its  social  effectiveness  to  the  fact  that  the 
social  process  is  an  unconscious  one. 

The  project  as  the  means  of  organizing  and  developing 
the  social  life  is  fully  as  effective  with  children.  A  common 
purpose  which  is  to  them  evidently  real  and  worth  while 
calls  out  their  co-operative  powers.*  It  reveals  the  ways  of 
social  living  and  it  furnishes  the  emotional  experiences  of 
the  social  life.  Activity  of  a  purposeful  character  for  the 
group  is  the  secret  of  social  organization.  This  is  a  recog- 
nized principle  in  the  modern  school,  where  activity  is  stimu- 
lated and  directed  by  the  "project,"  that  is,  the  purpose  or 
aim  which  enlists  and  organizes  activities. 

REFERENCES 

Addams,  Jane,  The  Spirit  of  Youth  and  the  City  Streets  (Macmillan, 

1909). 
King,  Irving,  Social  Aspects  of  Education  (Macmillan,  1912). 
Swift,  Edgar  J.,  Youth  and  the  Race  (Scribners,  1912). 

*See  "New  Forms  of  Class  Teaching,"  by  Lavinia  Tallmann,  in 
Religious  Education  for  August,  1917. 


CHAPTER  XII 

SOCIAL  SERVICE  IN  THE  EDUCATIONAL 
PROGRAMME 

Practically,  it  is  still  an  open  question  whether  the 
church  should  engage  in  social  service.  Theoretically,  there 
are  only  a  few  small  groups  doubting,  but,  so  far  as  action  is 
concerned,  the  majority  everywhere  hesitates.  Few  have 
any  real  programmes  of  service  in  their  communities;  a 
great  many  satisfy  themselves  with  occasional  expositions 
of  social  duty  or  an  exciting  expose  of  some  civic  ill.  Ex- 
cept for  sporadic  ministries  of  relief,  the  tendency  is  to  sub- 
stitute discussion  and  definition  of  these  duties  for  doing 
them. 

THE  MOTIVE 

The  motive  for  social  service  is  native  to  the  Christian 
character;  whoever  has  the  mind  of  Christ  cannot  refrain 
either  the  loving  hand  of  aid  or  the  earnest  effort  to  realize 
the  Christian  ideal  of  society.  If  the  individual  Christian 
normally  is  thus  socially  moved,  is  it  conceivable  that  Chris- 
tians socialized  in  a  church  group  can  be  less  influenced  by 
such  motives,  can  be  less  social  when  socialized?  If  social 
love  is  an  individual  duty  it  must  be  none  the  less  a  duty  for 
the  society.  This  motive  of  love  is  the  only  one  that  can 
direct  the  church  in  social  action.  The  ecclesiastical  record 
of  "social  service"  would  be  quite  different  if  the  motive  of 
love  had  been  the  only  one  operative.     Certainly  there  have 

132 


SOCIAL  SERVICE  AND  EDUCATION        133 

been  instances  where  the  motives  have  been  those  of  falling 
into  a  popular  vogue,  winning  a  reputation  for  striking  ac- 
tivity, or  offering  a  bait  to  the  multitude.  Wherever  the 
church  has  calculated  her  profits  in  the  enterprise  she  has 
made  a  poor  investment  and  brought  an  ill  savor  on  her  work. 
When  Josiah  Strong  wrote  The  New  Era*  we  were  sure 
that  the  day  of  the  institutional  church  had  come.  Why 
has  it  been  so  slow  in  dawning  ?  Why,  except  for  a  few  out- 
standing exceptions,  has  the  institutional  church  failed  ?  Is 
it  not  at  least  in  part  because  we  hailed  the  idea  of  the  in- 
stitutional church,  not  so  much  as  a  means  of  saving  society, 
but  rather  as  a  means  of  saving  the  church?  The  institu- 
tional type  of  service  seemed  to  be  a  good  thing  to  promote 
in  the  degree  that  it  would  win  friends  and  fame  to  the 
church.  Social  service  was  a  good  advertising  feature. 
But  "features,"  as  such,  have  always  failed,  and  we  might 
as  well  let  social  service  alone  until  we  can  see  that  it  has  a 
real  place,  an  essential  part,  in  the  inevitable  programme  of 
the  church. 

SOCIAL  SERVICE  AND  EDUCATION 

Some  have  thought  that  the  educational  programme  was 
a  reaction  from  the  tendency  to  emphasize  social  service. 
Perhaps  this  has  been  true  in  separate  instances.  Occa- 
sionally a  church  has  swung  from  the  feverish  bustle  of  in- 
stitutional activity  to  seek  refuge  in  the  calm  repose  of  lec- 
tures and  classes.  But  this  simply  indicates  that  as  they 
knew  not  social  service  so  they  do  not  know  education. 
The  two  are  not  opposed;  they  are  inseparable.  No  church 
has  an  educational  programme  unless  it  is  fully  committed 
*  Baker  &  Taylor,  1903. 


134  SOCIAL  SERVICE 

to  doing  the  will  of  God  in  society  and  to  leading  others  to 
do  that  will. 

SOCIAL  SERVICE  AND  RELIGION 

The  essential  place  of  social  service  in  the  educational  pro- 
gramme of  the  church  lies — 

First :  In  the  social  nature  of  the  work  or  process  of  re- 
ligious education.  In  fact,  it  lies  in  the  basic  social  nature 
of  all  education.  This  becomes  vividly  apparent  when 
education  is  seen,  not  as  classes  and  instruction,  but  as  a 
process  of  developing  lives,  the  lives  of  social  persons  under 
social  conditions  and  for  social  ends.  The  aim  of  religious 
education  in  the  church  is  the  development  of  persons,  as 
religious  beings,  in  a  social  group,  toward  a  religious  ideal 
of  character — an  ideal  essentially  one  of  social  love  and 
helpfulness — and  toward  a  whole  society  realizing  the  ideal 
of  a  brotherhood  of  persons  in  this  world. 

Second :  Considering  in  detail  the  aim — to  develop  per- 
sons as  religious  beings — the  place  of  social  service  lies  in 
the  nature  of  religion.  We  cannot  think  of  persons  develop- 
ing except  in  their  social  relations;  they  are  persons  because 
they  live  with  other  persons.  They  grow  in  personality 
as  there  are  developed  the  powers  of  knowing  others,  ad- 
justing life  to  others,  serving  others,  and  thus  discovering 
the  values  of  the  spiritual  social  order.  Religion  is  for  the 
children  of  to-day  a  social  concept;  it  means  seeing  life  in 
its  relations  to  other  lives  and  to  the  great  Life  of  all.  One 
cannot  think  of  a  Christian  individual  in  terms  of  pure  in- 
dividualism. True,  much  popular  theology*  goes  as  far 
as  any  thinking  can  go  in  individualism;  it  appeals  to  the 
*  See  John  H.  Holmes,  in  Religion  for  Today,  1917. 


SOCIAL  SERVICE  AxVD  RELIGION  135 

crassest  individual  motives;  it  describes  the  terms  of  salva- 
tion as  a  contract  between  individuals,  one  a  God  and  the 
other  a  man,  irrespective  of  all  the  rest  of  the  personal 
universe.  Yet,  so  basic  is  the  social  consciousness  that 
even  the  individualistic  theologian  only  postpones  his  social 
ideals  to  another  world.  Somewhere  the  religious  spirit  is 
compelled  to  find  its  social  realization;  even  though  contrac- 
tual salvation  offers  a  pass  "good  only  for  the  bearer,"  it 
is,  nevertheless,  a  pass  to  Zion,  the  far-off  social  Utopia. 
The  ideals  of  that  remote  heavenly  social  order  are  often 
primitive  and  its  details  vague;  but  evidently  even  where 
the  social  interest  is  most  urgently  denied  the  social  nature 
of  religion  will  not  be  denied  its  rights.  It  is  impossible  to 
educate  a  religious  being  save  as  a  social  being. 

Third :  Not  only  does  the  social  ideal  dominate  all 
modern  religious  thinking,  but  social  processes  are  also  the 
only  possible  processes  adapted  to  the  ends  of  religious  educa- 
tion. It  may  be  possible  for  one  alone,  buried  with  books  or 
lost  in  research,  to  gain  much  knowledge,  but,  for  the  pur- 
poses of  education,  he  must  come  out  of  such  isolation  and 
learn  life  amongst  lives. 

A  worthy  ideal  of  social  service  in  the  church  will  lead 
to  the  development  of  every  possible  opportunity  for  lives 
to  be  lived  together,  in  the  social  whole.  Somehow  we  must 
get  away  from  the  petty,  mechanical  notions  of  social  ser- 
vice as  the  organization  of  basket-laden,  slum-bent  delega- 
tions. The  church  needs  to  understand  that  for  which  the 
settlement  primarily  stands,  that  folks  want  folks;  they  need 
men  more  than  ministrations.  The  best  ministry  of  all  is 
that  of  living  amongst  those  who  need  us.  We  would  talk 
a  good  deal  less  about  social  service  if  we  could  break 


136  SOCIAL  SERVICE 

down  the  unchristian  caste  Hnes  in  our  rehgious  practices, 
for,  really  living  together,  such  service  would  be  as  simple, 
as  non-phenomenal,  as  the  old-time  custom  of  exchanging 
doughnuts  and  cookies  across  the  back  fence.  We  are  never 
conscious  of  doing  social  service  to  our  neighbors,  but  then 
we  are  doing  it  best  and  most. 

SOCIAL  HABITUATIONS 

Frequently  we  fail  to  develop  Christians  because  we  are 
not  offering  people  a  real  Christian  environment.  This 
spiritual  life  develops  as,  living  with  all  others,  one  forgets 
caste,  ignores  conventional  barriers  of  wage  and  salary,  and, 
by  sharing  life,  discovers  the  permanent  and  real  values  of 
personality  common  to  all  kinds  of  people  who  really  love 
the  good  and  the  eternal.  The  church  is  often  so  uifluenced 
by  social  custom  that  there  is  very  little  social  mingling. 
Just  as  in  the  city  the  different  communions  divide  into  rich 
churches,  or  rather  churches  for  the  rich  (quite  a  different 
thing)  and  churches  for  the  poor,  so  in  the  village  the  sec- 
tarian lines  frequently  represent  actual  social  cleavages. 
The  result  is  that  boys  and  girls  grow  up  in  religious  institu- 
tions that  emphasize  caste  lines,  that  are  much  less  demo- 
cratic, socially  much,  less  Christian,  than  the  public  high 
school.  In  religious  living  they  associate  only  with  those 
of  their  own  social  grade.  If  they  are  at  all  affluent  they 
may  "go  in  for  social  service"  and  become  acquainted  with 
the  poor  at  the  end  of  a  charity  basket. 

A  EELIGIOUS  SOCIETY 

Perhaps  the  man  with  money  needs  the  poor  man  more 
than  the  poor  man  needs  the  rich;  but  the  essential  fact  is 


A  RELIGIOUS  SOCIETY  137 

that  we  all  need  one  another;  none  of  us  can  live  either  to 
himself  or  to  his  class.  The  real  programme  of  the  church 
must  make  us  think  more  of  a  Christian  society,  and  that 
will  mean  less  need  for  what  we  call  Christian  social  service. 
We  all  need  to  know  one  another;  we  need  to  really  live  as 
members  of  one  family — or  cease  the  family  prayer.  That 
does  not  mean  living  under  one  roof,  though  it  ought  to  mean 
worshipping  under  one.  It  does  not  mean  that  all  the  cir- 
cumstances of  life  will  always  be  alike  for  all;  but  it  does 
mean  that  we  shall  think  deeper  than  things,  that  we  shall 
act  upon  the  common  spiritual  life  we  have  and  enter  into 
the  real  society  of  persons,  of  spirits  in  which  no  man  is  rich 
or  poor  by  the  measure  of  goods  but  only  by  the  Godlike 
graces  of  life.  We  can  never  have  a  religious  world  until 
we  do  this;  we  can  never  carry  forward  the  real  educational 
programme  of  the  church  in  leading  men  into  Godlikeness 
and  this  world  into  the  place  of  his  will  until  we  can  live  to- 
gether at  least  as  a  common  religious  society. 

This  closer,  kindlier  social  living  is  needed  by  growing 
young  people  to  save  them  from  the  habits  of  social  cleavage. 
It  is  needed  by  those  who  have  much  goods  to  save  them 
from  hardness  of  heart,  from  forgetting  that  a  man's  life 
does  not  consist  in  the  abundance  of  things  he  possesses, 
from  the  complacency  that  in  time  makes  unreal  the  suffer- 
ings and  handicaps  of  those  who  have  not.  It  is  needed  by 
the  poor  in  goods  that  they  may  really  have  the  fulness  of 
their  spiritual  rights  of  brotherhood,  that  they  may  give  to 
others  their  virtues  of  fortitude  and  patience,  that  they  may 
help  all  to  know  from  the  inside  of  experience  what  the  real 
problems  of  society  are.  It  is  needed  to  save  us  all  from 
"benevolence"  with  its  attendant  diseases  of  parasitism  and 


138  SOCIAL  SERVICE 

social  astigmatism.  It  is  needed  to  save  us  from  the  fast- 
developing  social  habit  of  subsidizing  social  enterprises  with 
largess,  predicating  social  enterprises  on  the  generosity,  the 
whim,  even  the  hoodwinking  of  those  who  have  the  world's 
money. 

A  PRACTICABLE  IDEAL  SOCIETY 

The  personal  Christian  character  can  grow  only  in  a 
Christian  society.  We  cannot  yet  organize  all  society  on 
the  Christian  ideal,  though  it  seems  to  be  coming;  but  we 
can  have  in  the  church  a  society  which,  at  least  in  many 
respects,  is,  in  actual  life,  such  a  society.  Life  in  it,  when  it 
is  really  a  society  of  the  spiritual  life,  animated  and  guided 
by  the  divine  ideals,  will  bring  all  its  members  under  the 
most  eflScient  means  of  Christian  education.  At  the  same 
time  such  a  society  teaches  the  world  what  religion  means 
and  what  Christianity  means. 

The  church  itself  then  serves  in  social  education  as  a  social 
institution.  It  is  the  "ecclesia,"  the  gathering  of  persons. 
Wherever  they  gather  about  a  common  spiritual  ideal  there 
is  a  church.  The  one  essential  ordinance  is  this  gathering, 
this  communion  of  persons,  of  souls.  But  wherever  persons 
are  associated  social  processes  are  at  work  and  in  a  sense 
education  is  operative.  The  largest  educational  activity 
of  a  church  is  just  this  socialization  of  persons.  We  can- 
not too  strongly  emphasize  this.  A  class  functions  more 
in  being  a  class  than  in  its  course  of  study.  A  school 
educates  more  through  the  organized  experience  of  its 
"crowd"  than  through  its  curriculum  of  studies.  "Forsake 
not  the  assembling  of  yourselves,"  not  because  of  any 
dictum  of  authority,  nor  alone  even  because  of  what  we 


SAVING  SOCIETY  139 

may  do  at  the  assembly,  but  because  of  what  the  assem- 
bhng  does  for  us. 

The  Christian  ideal  of  personal  character  is  a  social  ideal; 
the  aim  of  the  church  is  to  develop  a  society  of  Christlike 
socially  minded  persons.  That  ideal  reaches  out  into  a  com- 
plete social  concept  of  religion.  The  church  seeks  socially 
minded  persons  organized  into  a  religious  society.  In  fact, 
the  realization  of  the  ideal  for  the  person  is  largely  dependent 
on  the  realization  of  the  ideal  for  the  society,  as  the  latter 
determines  the  former.  Persons  grow  according  to  their 
social,  personal  environment.  The  mass  determines  the 
molecule.  The  church  does  not  seek  to  grow  in  spiritual 
beauty  heavenly  plants  perfected  in  some  celestial  atmos- 
phere, but  it  realizes  that  it  is  dealing  with  human  beings 
set  down  in  the  soil  of  every-day  life.  The  interest  of  the 
church,  therefore,  is  in  the  soil  in  which  souls  grow,  as  the 
interest  of  the  educator  is  in  the  determination  of  environ- 
ment.* 

SAVING  SOCIETY 

But  we  must  reach  out  beyond  the  church.  Socially  it  is 
a  means  and  not  an  end.  We  must  dominate  society  in 
order  to  provide  a  soil  for  the  soul.  We  must  save  the  world 
or  the  world  will  prevent  salvation.  So  long  as  we  think  of 
religion  as  an  other-worldly,  ethereal  affair  dealing  with 
unrelated  things  called  souls  we  can  question  the  social 
imperative.  But  organized  religion  is  influencing  directly 
persons  who  feel  and  think  and  act;  it  is  developing  them, 
in  powers  of  feeling  and  thought  and  action,  into  a  real  spiri- 
tual society.  The  church  must  face  and  solve  the  problems 
*  See  Chapter  XIII,  "  The  Church  and  Community  Welfare." 


140  SOCIAL  SERVICE 

of  society,  not  because  it  is  the  spectacular  thing  to  do  so, 
but  because  social  conditions  are  tremendously  potent  in  the 
same  iield.  They  are  determining  the  characters  of  men 
and  the  character  of  society.  They  have  a  vital  and  essen- 
tial share  in  the  immediate  function  of  the  church  in  the 
world.  She  cannot  make  lives  anew  in  a  world  that  remains 
essentially  unchanged. 

The  church,  moreover,  is  forbidden  to  slight  her  social 
duty  by  the  unvarying  law  that  neither  the  person  nor  the 
group  can  grow  except  by  service.  As  a  teacher  the  church 
makes  no  permanent  impression  on  persons  until  her  teach- 
ing is  expressed  in  action.  Service  is  one  of  the  normal 
methods  of  translating  doctrine  into  deed,  of  doing  the 
will.  Nothing  is  ours  in  the  world  of  ideals  until  we  carry 
it  over  into  the  world  of  action.  Social  service  in  the 
church  is  religious  education  carrying  instruction  and  in- 
spiration forward  into  action.  The  church  is  much  more 
than  an  institution  in  which  pious  persons  cultivate  their 
abilities  to  absorb  spiritual  instruction.  Those  who  have 
done  no  more  than  listen  to  sermons  have  died  spiritually  of 
homiletical  dyspepsia.  They  have  worn  out  the  pews  when 
they  ought  to  have  been  wearing  out  the  pavements.  They 
have  listened  when  they  ought  to  have  lifted.  But  together 
modern  education  and  modern  religion  have  been  insisting, 
with  increasing  harmony,  on  action.  If  the  church  is  to 
educate  men  into  religious  character  she  must  constantly 
furnish  opportunities  to  put  into  action  all  that  is  taught. 
Make  real  the  ideal  or  it  fades.  This  is  a  fundamental 
educational  principle. 

Evidently  social  service  is  more  significant  than  an 
ephemeral  interest  or  a  special  department  of  church  work. 
It  is  a  concrete  expression  of  the  attitude  of  the  church  toward 


PRACTICAL  APPLICATIONS  141 

life,  and  it  is  a  mode  of  carrying  forward  the  educational 
task  of  the  church.  It  may  well  be  doubted  whether,  under 
such  an  ideal,  social  service  can  be  treated  as  a  separate 
department  in  the  organization  of  a  church,  just  as  hygiene 
would  not  be  a  separate  department  in  a  well-regulated 
family  or  institution.  It  will  be  seen  rather  as  a  controlling 
principle  which  at  present  needs  practical  interpretation. 

PRACTICAL  APPLICATIONS 

Something  has  already  been  done  in  the  direction  of 
applying  the  principle  of  service  in  the  educational  work  of 
the  church  with  children.*  For  example,  in  the  church- 
school  service  activities  have  been  studied  with  reference  to 
the  opportunities  which  they  afford  to  the  different  grades  of 
the  school.  At  the  same  time  these  activities  have  been 
related  to  the  teaching  material  so  that  the  child  is  able  to 
carry  over  into  action  that  which  he  has  received  in  the  form 
of  instruction,  t  The  arrangement  of  a  curriculum  of  activity 
is  a  task  of  great  difficulty.  It  can  easily  become  purely 
mechanical  and  therefore  meaningless.  It  must  be  flexible, 
determined  by  local  conditions  and  the  lives  of  those  who 
participate.  Some  forms  of  service  are  common  to  almost 
all  churches  and  all  communities.  J  But  in  every  case  the 
value  of  programmes  will  be  greatly  increased  when  they 

*  See  Graded  Social  Service  in  the  Sunday  School,  by  W.  H.  Hutchins 
(University  of  Chicago  Press,  1914). 

t  A  good  example  is  A  Course  for  Beginners  in  Religious  Education, 
by  M.  E.  Rankin  (Scribners,  1917),  in  which  service  is  made  the  foun- 
dation of  all  the  lessons. 

J  Besides  the  much  more  comprehensive  survey  by  Dr.  Hutchins,  the 
author  ventured,  in  Efficiency  in  the  Sunday  School  (1912),  to  give  a  hst 
of  activities  for  boys  which  was  based  on  experience  in  a  small  church. 
There  are  a  number  of  good  examples  in  Graded  Missionary  Education 
in  the  Church  School,  by  Frederica  Beard  (A.B.P.S.,  1917). 


142  SOCIAL  SERVICE 

are  carefully  worked  out  and  frequently  revised  for  each 
school  in  tlie  light  of  its  own  needs.  In  doing  this  certain 
principles  must  be  followed.  Tliey  are  the  principles 
which  are  applied  by  asking  tlie  questions  concerning  a  pro- 
gramme of  activities:  What  needs  to  be  done  ?  What  per- 
sons or  groups  are  best  suited  to  these  tasks  ? — that  is,  not 
principally  who  are  best  fitted  by  experience,  but  who  are 
best  suited  in  view  of  their  needs  and  their  characteristics? 
What  is  the  relation  of  the  activities  proposed  to  any  others 
preceding  and  succeeding?  What  instruction  should  pre- 
cede tlie  service  contemplated  ?    What  should  follow  ? 

Underlying  all  the  organization  of  specific  programmes 
there  must  be  definite  plans  for  general  training  in  the 
social  aspects  of  the  religious  life.  It  is  important  to  see 
how  real  and  definite  and  inclusive  are  the  social-service 
aspects  of  the  educational  programme.  It  includes  all  that 
goes  to  make  real  the  ideal  of  a  religious  society,  a  God- 
willed  world.  It  includes  whatever  men  do  to  make  the 
community  the  kind  of  a  place  in  which  the  will  of  God  can 
be  done.  It  sees  tlie  possibilities  of  the  community  as  a 
force  to  do  the  will  of  God.  This  does  not  mean  regulating 
the  lives  of  our  fellows  so  that  they  will  do  just  what  we  have 
determined  God  wants  them  to  do.  It  means  organizing  a 
community  so  that  by  Its  health,  its  powers  for  happiness, 
for  growth,  and  for  righteousness  it  works  as  a  force  to 
make  happy,  right  willing  and  right  living  people.  It  re- 
gards all  tlie  services  of  the  church  as  forces  to  realize  the 
religious  society.  It  Includes  all  that  makes  homes  better, 
more  capable  for  their  work,  streets  safer,  playgrounds  and 
parks  more  helpful  to  lives,  factories  more  efficient  to  serve 
society.    It  thinks  of  factories  making  men  as  well  as  divi- 


SOCIAL  STUDIES  143 

dends.     It  reaches  out  into  all  the  world  to  realize  the  good 
of  man  through  the  means  of  the  social  organizations. 

When  one  sees  the  social  vision  in  its  fulness  our  schemes 
and  our  details  of  method  may  appear  petty  and  insignificant. 
But  plans  we  must  have.  This  is  more  than  a  glowing  dream ; 
it  is  a  realizable  ideal.  It  comes  only  through  actions  that 
seem  small  in  the  light  of  the  whole.  The  first  step  will  be 
the  education  of  the  church  in  the  social  meanings  of  religion. 
Somehow  men  must  be  quickened  to  see  that  this  real,  prac- 
tical life  of  daily  experience  and  living  together  is  that  which 
is  making  us  all,  and  this  is  the  sphere  where  religion  must  be 
realized.  This  is  not  a  "  social  gospel " ;  it  is  a  life  fact.  The 
good  news  is  not  that  society  saves  men;  it  is  that  God  wills 
their  eternal  good,  their  salvation  in  terms  of  infinite  love, 
that  he  wills  it  all  for  the  salvation  of  the  whole.  And  the 
working  fact  is  that  those  who  are  to  be  saved  are  living 
in  society,  growing  in  it  as  plants  in  a  soil,  and  they  cannot  be 
saved  in  any  full  sense  except  as  the  whole  is  lifted  together. 
"God  so  loved  the  world."  What  are  we  doing  for  the 
world?  And  what  are  we  letting  the  world  do  with  men? 
The  vision  of  the  people  must  be  clarified.  Such  simple 
standards  as  those  defined  in  The  Social  Creed  of  the 
Churches  show  how  fundamental  they  are  to  any  religious 
concept  of  social  conditions.* 

SOCIAL  STUDIES 

Young  people  must  be  trained  in  the  habits  of  the  Chris- 
tian social  life.     Their  grouping  in  the  normal  society  of  the 

*  See  Reports  of  the  Commission  on  Christian  Service  in  the  Federal 
Council  of  Chm-ches  of  Christ  in  America,  and  such  a  book  as  A  Social 
Theory  of  Religious  Education,  George  A.  Coe,  shows  how  fundamental 
are  the  social  facts  in  education. 


144  SOCIAL  SERVICE 

Christian  brotherhood  will  be  the  most  important  step  in 
that  training.  They  must  take  up  the  simple  daily  duties  of 
a  religious  social  order.  They  will  begin  in  their  every-day 
relations,  in  the  family,  on  the  playground,  in  the  public 
schools,  or  wherever  they  are.*  We  must  cease  to  teach 
social  duties  as  occasional  and  extraneous  to  their  lives. 
Those  who  carry  baskets  in  benevolence  must  habitually 
carry  themselves  as  religious  persons  to  all  other  persons. 
Social  self-giving  will  express  itself  in  all  social  experiences, 
on  the  street,  playground,  or  school  floor.  The  social  life 
will  be  learned  by  living  it.  All  special  teachings,  discus- 
sions, definitions  will  come  later;  they  will  rise  out  of  actual 
experience.  Lessons  are  learned  as  they  are  lived.  Our 
social  courses  for  young  people  will  develop  as  we  take  them 
out  into  the  practice  fields  of  life.f 

But  the  teaching  cannot  be  neglected.  The  immediate 
duty  would  seem  to  be  that  we  shall  revise  much  of  it  in  the 
light  of  social  living.  This  laboratory  of  daily  living  where 
youth  is  practising  the  religious  social  order  may  dictate 
our  lessons.  Too  many  of  the  courses  of  study  are  purely 
academic  discussions  of  Old  World  persons,  Old  World  acts, 
and  Old  World  theories.  How  unreal  they  are !  Is  there 
any  wonder  they  do  not  issue  in  life  when  the  learner  thinks 
of  them  only  as  tasks  ?  They  are  something  to  be  done,  he 
knows  not  why,  and  he  is  burning  with  impatience  to  get 
into  the  real  world,  living,  actual,  thrilling,  just  beyond  the 

*  As  a  text  see  Christianizing  the  Community,  by  Harry  F.  Ward, 
Association  Press,  1917. 

t  See  The  Social  Welfare  Work  of  Unitarian  Churches,  E.  S.  Forbes, 
pamphlet  free  (American  Unitarian  Association),  and  Wise  Direction  of 
Church  Activities  Towards  Social  Welfare,  Chas.  W.  Eliot,  free  pamphlet 
(American  Unitarian  Association). 


SOCIAL  STUDIES  145 

classroom  walls.  Suppose  we  were  to  do  more  as  Jesus  did, 
take  our  lessons  from  the  immediate  life?  Would  they  be 
real  ?  Could  they  be  lived  ?  Would  they  not  be  most  truly 
religious  if  they  interpreted  the  things  the  boy  knows,  the 
baseball  game,  the  civic  struggle,  the  city  council  in  terms 
of  God's  plan  for  a  world  ?  Which  does  this  boy  need  most, 
to  know  why  and  when  and  how  Israel  marched  seven 
times  around  Jericho  or  how  his  playground  may  be  a  place 
where  right  and  truth  and  godliness  prevail  ?  Does  he  not 
need  to  know  how  he  shall  live  just  now  and  what  the  life 
of  all  about  him  should  be?  If  we  cannot  make  spiritual 
the  immediate  then  our  spirituality  is  only  a  dream  of  the 
past.  And  to  this  immediate  we  may  bring  the  heritage  of 
the  rich  past.  Then  history  has  meaning  as  it  brings  light 
for  to-day.  The  wealth  of  tradition,  heroism,  and  idealism 
in  the  long  race  story  are  essential  to  strengthen  and  inspire 
the  life  of  the  present.  But  they,  too,  are  real  only  as  they 
are  realized  in  the  life  of  to-day. 

Social  service,  then,  is  an  essential  part  of  the  educational 
programme  of  the  church  because  it  is  the  means  by  which 
the  ideal  of  a  Christian  society  is  to  be  realized  and,  at  the 
same  time,  it  affords  the  means  by  which  the  religious  life 
and  character  is  developed.  What  could  afford  us  greater 
encouragement  than  the  fact  that  churches  are  fast  coming 
to  see  this  duty  and  opportunity?  In  the  modern  church 
the  youth  who  have  seen  their  visions  may  also  invest  their 
energies  in  making  the  visions  real.  In  these  churches  each 
life  is  finding  itself  in  losing  itself,  is  gaining  fulness  of  life  in 
self -giving. 


14G  SOCIAL  SERVICE 


REFERENCES 

CoE,  George  A.,  A  Social  Theory  of  Religious  Education  (Scribners, 

1917). 
Holmes,  John  Haynes,   The  Revolutionary  Function  of  the  Modern 

Church  (Putnams,  1912). 
Macfarland,  C.  S.,  Christian  Service  and  the  Modern  World  (Revell, 

1915). 
Cutting,  R.  F.,  Church  and  Society  (Macmillan,  1912). 
Taylor,  Graham,  Religion  and  Social  Action  (Dodd,  Mead,  1913). 
Ward,  H.  F.,  The  Social  Creed  of  the  Churches  (Abingdon,  1914). 
Trawick,  a.  M.,  The  City  Church  and  Its  Social  Mission  (Association 

Press,  1913). 
Batten,  S.  Z.,  The  Social  Task  of  Christianity  (Revell,  1911). 
The  Federal  Council  of  Churches  Year  Book  contains  a  list  of  the 

pamphlets  issued  by  the  various  church  boards  and  com- 
missions on  social  service. 
Vol.  II,  Men  and  Religion  Reports,  Social  Service  (Association  Press, 

1912). 


CHAPTER  XIII 
THE  CHURCH  AND  COMMUNITY  WELFARE 

The  concern  of  the  church  in  community  welfare  is  based 
on  the  social  character  of  the  church  and  the  social  nature 
of  education.  The  community  is  the  social  environment  of 
the  church;  it  constitutes  the  life  soil  in  which  her  people 
are  growing.  The  responsibility  of  the  church  for  conditions 
of  living  has  been  suggested  in  the  chapter  on  "Social  Ser- 
vice/' but  there  are  relations  of  the  church  to  the  life  of 
the  community  which  demand  special  attention.  The  com- 
munity offers  an  educational  problem  to  the  church  in 
two  aspects:  First,  as  a  prophetic  teaching  institution  the 
church  must  educate  the  community  in  the  ideals  and  habits 
of  civic,  social  righteousness.  Second,  the  community  is  in 
itself  an  educational  power,  very  largely  determining  the 
lives  for  which  the  church  is  responsible. 

It  may  be  profitable  to  study  the  two  simple  t}^es  of 
communities  existing  to-day,  what  is  called  generally  the 
rural  type — that  is,  where  the  problems  of  intense  human 
polarization  do  not  exist — and  the  city  type.  The  first  field 
illustrates  the  essential  principles  that  prevail  in  all  com- 
munity living.  The  neglected  needs  of  rural  life  and  the 
fact  that  here  there  is  a  larger  freedom  of  opportunity  give 
this  special  problem  first  place.  Further,  whatever  may  be 
true  in  the  city,  community  organization  is  the  largest  oppor- 
tunity of  the  church  in  the  country. 

147 


148    THE  CHURCH  AND  COMMUNITY  WELFARE 


THE   RURAL  COMMUNITY 

The  country  church,  made  familiar  to  us  by  some  of  the 
best  in  English  literature,  was  so  human  an  institution  be- 
cause it  was  so  intensely  interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  per- 
sons in  its  community.  The  American  village  church  al- 
ways has  been  a  ministering  institution.  A  large  measure 
of  its  activities  have  been  directed  informally  to  the  care 
of  the  sick,  provision  for  the  needy,  and  relief  of  the  dis- 
tressed. Goldsmith's  parson,  "passing  rich  on  forty  pounds 
a  year,"  never  turning  a  beggar  from  the  door;  Trollope's 
parson's  wife,  who  spends  her  days  in  piecing  out  flannel 
petticoats  for  villagers;  Margaret  Deland's  charming  chari- 
ties in  Old  Chester;  and  the  ladies'  aid  society  of  the  Ameri- 
can church,  with  its  quiltings  and  its  buzzing  sewing- 
machines,  all  rise  from  the  same  great  dynamic  of  human 
regard  for  the  welfare  of  others.  They  are  united  in  love 
though  divided  in  time  and  creeds. 

But  in  these  days  the  aid  society  has  almost  passed  out  of 
existence;  the  parson's  wife  no  longer  wins  awesome  obei- 
sance as  the  potential  petticoat  distributer  and  the  church 
is  by  no  means  the  sole  agency  for  the  relief  of  distress.  They 
are  no  longer  the  dominant  factors  in  the  determination  of 
community  welfare.  Welfare  work  is  organized;  it  has  be- 
come a  science  and  it  demands  more  than  a  programme  of 
amateur  beneficence. 

The  churches  have  not  been  blind  to  the  social  changes 
of  the  past  decades.  They  are  adapting  themselves  to  the 
new  community  life,  but  their  adaptations,  as  yet,  are  largely 
in  tlie  experimental  stage.  They  lack  fundamental  guiding 
principles.     Much  is  being  done,  but  a  large  part  of  the 


RURAL  CONDITIONS  149 

activity  is  simply  a  response  to  the  conviction  that  "some- 
thing must  be  done  about  it."  Many  churches  in  the  larger 
villages  and  cities  have  fairly  adequate  programmes.  They 
have  determined  their  relations  to  the  social  agencies  of  the 
community.  They  are  co-operating  with  them,  and  their 
field  is  clearly  marked  out  by  the  recognition  of  their  special 
responsibility  for  persons  as  religious  beings  and  for  condi- 
tions that  make  for  a  religious  society. 

In  the  cities,  boards  of  charity,  relief,  and  philanthropy, 
together  with  purely  civic  organizations,  carry  on  organized 
social  work.  But  in  the  rural  districts  there  is  scarcely  any 
organized  provision  for  community  welfare,  for  the  church, 
the  social  unit  of  the  country,  is  only  beginning  to  realize  a 
responsibility  for  social  well-being.  Rural  churches  have 
been  losing  their  former  social  contacts  largely  because  their 
communities  have  been  undergoing  social  disintegration,* 

RURAL  CONDITIONS 

The  most  striking  problem  of  rural  life  at  this  time  is  its 
lack  of  social  unity.  Present  conditions  are  due  to  a  num- 
ber of  causes:  immigration  to  the  country  has  broken  up 
racial  integrity;  many  a  community  has  people  of  half  a 
dozen  nationalities  owning  or  renting  its  farms;  none  of 
them  has  been  in  the  melting-pot  long  enough  to  become 
fused;  the  increasing  social  compactness  of  the  city  intensi- 
fies the  feeling  of  separateness  in  the  country;  the  proximity 
of  growing  villages  has  broken  links  of  rural  unity,  such  as 
neighborly  exchange,  service,  and  opportunities  for  acquain- 
tance at  store  and  post-office.    The  trolley  has  often  disin- 

*See  Warren  H.  Wilson  on  "The  Function  of  the  Church  in  the 
Country,"  in  Religious  Education  for  Feb.,  1918. 


150    THE  CHURCH  AND  COMMUNITY  WELFARE 

tegrated  a  community  by  taking  away  mutual  dependencies. 
The  country  lags  behind  the  city  in  its  thinking  on  social 
affairs;  it  is  still  individualistic.  If  diphtheria  breaks  out 
on  Smith's  farm,  the  neighbors  think,  not  of  contagion  in 
the  community,  but  of  aches  and  pains  and  distresses  in 
the  Smith  household.  The  country  church,  very  much  like 
the  city  church,  lags  so  far  behind  the  human  procession  in 
its  thinking  on  social  matters  that  it  has  no  message  on 
social  subjects.  They  are  often  tabooed  as  unspiritual,  as 
too  worldly.  Much  accessible  material  on  social  conditions 
is  so  exclusively  urban  that  the  minister  finds  it  difficult  to 
deal  with  the  rural  problem.* 

Yet  even  in  the  country  the  church  can  no  more  escape 
community  responsibility  than  it  can  escape  the  simple  fact 
of  its  community  environment.  This  is  so,  primarily,  be- 
cause every  church  is  a  community  organization.  Regard- 
less of  ecclesiastical  theories,  the  fact  remains  that  every 
church  is  the  communal  grouping  of  kindred  spirits  seeking 
common  aims,  bound  by  common  ideals  and  sympathies. 
The  spirit  of  this  age  which  thinks  of  welfare,  not  in  terms  of 
individualism  but  in  terms  of  society,  has  begun  to  penetrate 
the  church.  It  is  being  accepted  by  its  leaders,  and  soon 
the  churches  will  throw  their  united  social  force  into  the 
realization  of  social  ideals.  The  country  church  will  come 
to  realize  its  community  responsibility,  to  see  that  it  has  a 
primary  task  of  securing  right  physical  and  moral  conditions 
in  the  rural  districts,  and  that  it  has  a  deeper  concern  in 
hygiene,  sanitation,  and  recreation  than  it  has  in  platting 
prospective  subdivisions  in  another  world. 

*  See  Henry  Israel,  County  Church  and  Community  Cooperation  (As- 
sociation Press). 


THE  POSSIBILITIES  151 

When  a  church  turns  her  attention  to  clean  streets,  to 
healthy  homes,  to  recreation  centres,  to  means  of  social 
accretion  and  integration,  she  is  not  forsaking  her  divine 
mission;  she  is  cultivating  heavenly  character  by  appropri- 
ate means. 

THE  POSSIBILITIES 

What  can  a  rural  church  do  for  community  welfare? 
Such  a  church  can  come  to  an  intelHgent  understanding  of 
community  conditions,  needs,  and  possibilities.  A  chart 
of  a  rural  community,  showdng  the  homes,  churches,  schools, 
places  of  communal  gathering,  locations  of  agencies  for  good 
and  for  ill,  would  prove  as  striking  as  such  charts  have  been 
for  city  wards.  The  church  may  set  its  young  men  to 
gather  the  facts  and  prepare  such  a  chart.* 

The  rural  church  often  already  has  the  plant  with  which 
to  begin  social-centre  operations.  The  great  need  is  better 
social  fusing.  The  Imes  of  racial  differences  and  the  pre- 
occupations of  intensified  business  have  put  an  end  to  social 
visiting.  We  do  not  know  one  another.  The  church  ser- 
vice should  be  strengthened  at  the  point  of  opportunity 
for  social  acquaintance.  The  church  building  can  be  used 
for  such  attractions  as  will  bring  the  community  together 
for  recreation  and  for  self-improvement.  A  rural  community 
needs  band  concerts,  lectures,  concerts,  a  library,  and  suit- 
able recreation  just  as  truly  as  a  city  community.  Why 
should  not  the  local  church  undertake  these  things  ?  They 
have  been  carried  on  successfully  in  many  instances.    They 

*  On  the  method  of  the  survey,  see  Knowing  One's  Own  Community, 
by  Carol  Aronovici,  a  very  valuable  free  pamphlet  published  by  the 
American  Unitarian  Association,  Boston.  Also,  Community  Surveys, 
by  C.  S.  Carrol  (Abingdon  Press,  1915). 


152    THE  CHURCH  AND  COMMUNITY  WELFARE 

afford  an  opportunity  not  only  for  the  church  to  minister 
but  for  all  people  to  find  opportunities  for  service  and  for 
each  to  find  his  own  ministry  to  all.  Many  a  youth  who 
would  otherwise  drift,  through  idleness,  into  vice  will  find 
himself  at  his  best  when  he  has  a  chance  to  work  at  a  play- 
ground or  at  the  library  activities  in  the  church. 

We  can  easily  revive  certain  now  obsolete  activities  for 
the  rural  church,  obsolete  only  because  they  failed  to  make 
necessary  readjustments.  They  are:  philanthropic  ser- 
vice, once  accomplished  by  the  parson,  now  to  be  accom- 
plished by  systematic,  directed  study  of  community  needs 
by  groups  of  capable  persons;  library  work,  once  conducted 
by  the  Sunday-school  library,  now  by  co-operation  with 
library  centres  for  the  distribution  of  all  good  literature 
through  the  week;  the  reading-room,  once  attempted  as  a 
bait  to  church  affiliation,  now  to  become  the  social  centre 
for  the  community,  the  place  where  men  worship  God  by 
getting  to  know  one  another  better;  the  playing-ground, 
once  found  in  many  churchyards,  the  place  where  the  old 
sat  under  the  trees,  looked  over  the  graves  of  the  dead  and 
gossiped  about  the  living,  while  the  children  played  on  the 
green,  now  easily  possible  to  many  a  country  church  with 
its  adjacent  acres  of  field  and  farm.  Why  should  not  the 
ball-ground  be  next  the  church?  The  problem  of  Sunday 
ball-playing  would  then  solve  itself.  The  church  has  lost 
control — moral  control — of  many  things  because  she  has 
heedlessly  and  often  selfishly  divorced  herself  from  them. 

CO-OPERATION 

Where  there  are  several  rural  churches  co-operation  be- 
comes imperative.  The  present  duplications  of  plant  and 
organization  are  scandalously  wasteful.     In  the  economy 


PREPARATION  153 

of  righteousness  religion  must  give  an  account  for  its  wastes. 
If  half  the  rural  churches  could  be  abolished  and  one-fourth 
could  be  relocated  the  situation  would  be  vastly  improved. 
But,  looking  forward,  it  is  possible  to  prevent  waste  and 
inefficiency  by  avoiding  the  creation  of  uimecessary  welfare 
organizations.  To  have  as  many  gymnasiums  or  playing- 
grounds  as  there  are  churches  is,  in  the  country,  a  terrible 
exhibition  of  the  blindness  of  bigotry.  The  situation  de- 
mands the  syndication  of  energies  and  organizations. 

If  the  church  is  to  serve  the  community  its  work  can  be 
done  only  on  the  basis  of  unselfish  service  and  only  through 
community  co-operation.  The  most  common  difficulty  is 
that  as  soon  as  the  A  church  attempts  a  programme  of  com- 
munity service  the  B  church  duplicates  it  lest  the  A's  should 
seem  to  get  any  advantage  over  them.  Only  as  all  syndi- 
cate their  efforts,  avoid  the  dreadful  wastes  of  duplication 
and  competition,  and  present  to  the  community  plans  of 
united  service  can  we  hope  really  to  accomplish  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  community  as  the  environment  of  the  higher  life, 
the  soil  of  the  soul.  The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  forms  an  efficient  and 
ready  agency  through  which  the  local  churches  may  carry 
on  their  physical  welfare  work  and  their  social  service  for 
young  men.  Given  the  support  of  the  chiu-ches,  the  Young 
Women's  Christian  Association  affords  a  like  agency  for 
girls  and  young  women.  In  all  endeavors  all  the  churches 
must  get  together  to  discover  the  best  means  of  effecting 
their  common  ends. 

PREPARATION 

The  programme  of  the  church  must  be  more  effective  in 
inspiring  and  educating  men  to  do  things  for  the  community. 
She  must  establish  the  ideal  of  a  community  life  favorable 


154    THE  CHURCH  AND  COMMUNITY  WELFARE 

to  the  development  of  aggressive,  competent,  righteous 
character,  and  she  must  teach,  train,  and  inspire  her  people 
to  the  making  of  such  a  community.  The  mission  and 
opportunity  of  preaching  in  shaping  ideals  and  determining 
action  is  clear;  the  question  is  whether  the  preacher  is  quite 
clear  as  to  community  ideals  and  their  importance.  On  this 
waits  any  specific,  organized  instruction  of  the  people 
tlirough  classes  and  courses  of  study.  We  need  courses  of 
study  in  home-making,  parenthood,  domestic  welfare,  and 
all  that  concerns  the  institution  in  which  character  is  most 
determined.  We  need  courses  in  civics  and  in  social  re- 
ligion. We  need  studies  of  community  experiences  and  ser- 
vice to  acquaint  people  with  progress  in  other  places.  We 
need,  in  a  word,  all  that  will  teach  character  development 
through  the  machinery  and  forces  of  the  community.*  The 
church  school  is  one  great  opportunity  for  this  work.  There 
ought  to  come  a  time  in  the  life  of  youth  when  the  literary 
study  of  the  Bible  receives  practical  application  in  this  direc- 
tion, when  he  will  fix  his  eyes  on  the  place  and  conditions  in 
which  he  and  others  must  now  work  out  heroism  and  sane 
sanctity.  The  fact  is,  he  is  already  far  more  interested  in  his 
real  and  immediate  life  than  in  any  discussions  of  historical 
or  literary  views  and  he  wants  only  direction  to  apply  him- 
self to  work. 

But  the  church  school  may  be  advantageously  supple- 
mented by  other  groups  meeting  on  week  evenings.     Clubs 

*  Something  has  been  done  to  prepare  text-books :  The  Gospel  of  the 
Kingdom  (American  Institute  of  Social  Service);  Kent,  Social  Teach- 
ings of  the  Prophets  and  Jesus ;  Weston,  The  World  a  Field  of  Christian 
Service ;  Jenks  and  Kent,  Making  of  a  Nation  and  Testing  of  a  Nation's 
Ideals ;  Ward  and  Edwards,  Christianizing  Community  Life ;  Forbush, 
Child  Study  and  Child  Training. 


THE  CITY  CHURCH  155 

and  like  organizations  from  all  the  churches  may  together 
follow  well-arranged  programmes  of  study  provided  they 
are  sufficiently  elementary,  evidently  practical,  and  led  by 
persons  willing  to  learn.  Such  courses  are  already  pre- 
pared;* churches  are  using  them,  and  the  chances  are  that 
before  long  the  country  dweller  will  understand  his  life  and 
deal  with  it  more  scientifically  than  will  any  other.  He  will 
deal  with  it  effectively  when  he  takes  it  as  a  means  and 
opportunity  for  the  development  of  fulness  of  personality 
and  competency  of  character. 

THE  CITY  CHURCH 

The  special  problems  of  the  urban  church,t  though  by 
no  means  entirely  peculiar  to  them,  are  those  due  to  the 
crowded  programme  of  city  life.  Many  of  them  have  been 
evident  in  the  rural  situation.  They  rise  in  the  more 
highly  developed  socialization  of  life,  so  that  the  interests 
of  persons  pass  over  from  the  smaller  groups,  as  families 
and  churches,  into  the  larger  groups  for  amusement  and 
recreation.  Play  has  passed  from  the  back-yard  into  the 
park,  entertainment  from  the  family  group  around  the  piano 
to  the  amusement  park  and  the  moving-picture  show.  The 
situation  is  fraught  with  danger  because  guiding  controls 

*  Civic  Righteousness  and  Civic  Pride,  N.  M.  Hall  (Sherman,  French, 
1914).  Social  TTorfc,  English,  W.  E.  Chadwick  (Longmans,  1909). 
The  Social  Gospel,  Shailer  Mathews  (Griffith  &  Rowland,  1910).  In- 
ternational Graded,  Senior,  Fourth  Year,  The  Bible  and  Social  Re- 
ligion. Social  Duties  from  the  Christian  Point  of  View,  C.  R.  Hender- 
son (Univ.  of  Chicago  Press,  1909).  Society,  Its  Origin  and  Develop- 
ment, H.  K.  Rowe  (Scribners). 

t  On  the  general  programme  of  commimity  usefulness,  see  the  chap- 
ter on  "Social  Service."  See  also  The  Socialized  Churchy  by  Worth  M. 
Tippy  (Eaton  &  Mains,  1909). 


156    THE  CHURCH  AND  COMMUNITY  WELFARE 

are  removed  and  the  motives  of  commercial  exploitation  are 
substituted  for  those  of  informal  friendly  pleasure.  The 
situation  is  so  familiar  that  it  needs  no  amplification. 

THE  AMUSEMENT  PROBLEM 

We  face  a  newly  awakened  recognition  of  the  necessity 
of  recreation.  People  are  believing  in  play;  the  pressure  of 
life  forces  us  all  to  seek  relief.  The  opportunities  in  recrea- 
tion and  amusement  are  recognized  by  those  who  capitalize 
them  for  revenue,  and  we  have  failed  to  develop  in  ourselves 
the  powers  of  self-entertainment.  All  this  is  accentuated 
by  the  current  tendency  to  take  all  life  in  terms  of  pleasure 
alone. 

What  is  a  reasonable  programme  for  a  church  facing  the 
present  passion  for  amusement  and  seeking  to  minister  to 
the  normal  needs  of  humanity  in  this  respect  ?  The  church 
must  protect  the  rights  of  the  people.  First,  the  right  to 
play,*  to  means  of  recreation,  restraining  those  who  would 
turn  innocent  pleasures  into  debauching  excesses  solely  for 
purposes  of  gain.  Second,  the  social  right  to  moral  health. 
No  one  has  a  right  to  spread  either  physical  infection  or 
moral  infection.  We  who  quarantine  contagious  diseases 
have  a  clear  right  to  quarantine  the  carriers  and  exploiters 
of  moral  perversions  and  ills.  No  pleas  of  the  rights  of 
money,  vested  interests,  or  business  can  take  precedence  of 
the  rights  of  men  and  women  to  morally  healthful  condi- 
tions. 

What,  practically,  can  the  local  church  do  in  the  present 
situation?    Its  minister  may  simply  denounce  the  present- 

*  See  The  Church  and  the  People's  Play,  by  H.  A.  Atkinson  (Pilgrim 
Press,  1915).  The  Church  and  the  Young  Man's  Game,  F.  J.  Milnes, 
(Doran,  1913). 


THE  A:\IUSEMEXT  problem  157 

day  "craze  for  amusements";  he  may  roundly  condemn 
dancing  and  the  opera.*  Much  pulpit  condemnation  of 
amusements  exhibits  powers  of  imagination  rather  than 
observation.  Denunciation  will  not  be  enough.  "^Tiat- 
ever  is  done  we  cannot  escape  the  fact  that  growing  na- 
tures must  have  some  means  of  meeting  the  needs  which  at 
present  they  seek  to  satisfy  through  amusements.  They 
must  have  free,  associated,  voluntary,  and  ideal  activities. 
Young  people  are  like  children  in  the  growing  period;  their 
rapid  development  makes  play  as  much  a  necessity  as  food. 
With  them  play  takes  the  form  of  recreations,  social  gather- 
ings, the  dance,  attendance  on  theatres,  movies,  and  the 
parks.  These  things,  in  some  degree  at  least,  offer  some 
satisfaction  to  the  craving  for  ideal  experiences.  No  matter 
what  our  tastes  may  be,  we  cannot  hope  to  have  a  com- 
munity free  from  play,  one  in  which  every  person  over 
fifteen  spends  all  his  leisure  reading  serious  books.  Nor 
can  we  expect  that  young  people  will  ever  be  old  people. 
In  fact,  we  are  recognizing  the  benefits  of  play  so  generally 
that  to-day  we  have  no  old  people. 

Nor  can  the  church  neglect  this  play  life.  The  young 
person  is  growing  in  character,  good  or  bad,  in  the  hours  of 
play.  This  personal  life  is  usually  being  determined  more 
by  the  leisure  hours  than  by  any  others.  The  religious  life 
is  being  determined;  this  life  does  not  grow  by  being  dipped 
into  the  devotional  developer  of  a  church  service  once  a 
week;  it  grows  all  the  time.  If  the  church  seeks  the  de- 
velopment of  religious  persons  she  has  a  deep  concern  in  all 
that  makes  for  or  hinders  their  growth  anj^'here  or  at  any 

*  On  these  amusements,  see  chap.  V  in  The  Church  and  the  People^ s 
Play,  Atkinson;  Popular  Amusements,  R.  H.  Edwards  (Association 
Press,  1915). 


158    THE  CHURCH  AND  COMMUNITY  WELFARE 

time.  We  would  not  ban  amusements  if  we  could;  we  can- 
not ignore  them;  we  have  but  one  thing  to  do,  to  determine 
what  they  shall  be. 

RECREATION  SURVEY 

The  first  step  will  be  to  know  the  facts  of  this  part  of  the 
community's  life.*  With  the  aid  of  workers  in  the  church 
or  in  co-operation  with  a  general  community  agency  we 
must  gather  the  facts  of  the  life  of  amusement  and  recreation. 
Get  all  the  facts  and  tabulate  them.  Then  exhibit  the  facts 
in  graphic  form  by  means  of  maps  and  charts.  Show  this 
exhibit  publicly.  The  survey  furnishes  the  facts  to  guide 
the  church  in  strengthening  the  helpful  agencies,  developing 
healthful  opportunities  and  exposing  and  eliminating  all 
that  injures.  Now  is  the  time  to  determine  what  the  com- 
munity needs  and  to  plan  to  supply  sound,  helpful,  attractive 
recreation  and  amusement,  f  If  possible,  all  such  provision 
should  be  made  in  co-operation  with  every  other  church 
and  with  such  agencies  as  the  public  school,  the  library,  the 
Y.  M.  and  Y.  W.  C.  A.  In  one  community  the  local  church 
furnished  so  good  a  grade  of  motion-pictures  that  the  vil- 
lage council  voted  to  exclude  all  commercialized  "movies" 
and  to  leave  this  form  of  amusement  to  that  church.  J 

COMMUNITY  ORGANIZATION 

A  pressing  problem  of  the  community  lies  in  the  lack  of 
organization  for  life's  higher  purposes.  The  ideal  agencies 
are  in  bitter  competition  at  some  points  while  at  others 

*  On  the  survey  of  recreation,  see  part  III  of  Popular  Amusements^ 
by  R.  H.  Edwards  (Association  Press,  1915). 

t  See  Community  Music  and  Drama,  a  valuable  pamphlet  published 
by  the  Extension  Division,  Univ.  of  Wisconsin,  1917;   10  cents. 

%  Winnetka,  111.,  under  direction  of  Rev.  J.  W.  F.  Davies. 


COMMUNITY  ORGANIZATION  159 

they  wholly  neglect  their  opportunities.  There  is  often  a 
sense  of  conflict  between  the  school  and  the  churches,  some- 
times between  the  churches  and  the  Christian  associations. 
There  is  no  common  consciousness  of  a  united  community 
programme  in  which  each  agency  plays  a  suitable  part. 
If  we  could  have  a  real  programme  we  might  begin  to 
think  of  our  communities  in  educational  terms.  We  might 
see  that  in  a  very  real  sense  this  larger  common  life  is  an 
effective  school  in  which  all  are  learning  to  live.  We  might 
unite  to  make  it  really  a  school  of  religious  living. 

The  immediate  need  in  every  community  is  for  an  organiza- 
tion through  which  the  churches  and  other  agencies  seeking 
ideal  ends  might  co-operate.  We  need  that  which  corre- 
sponds to  the  city  council,  a  group  representing  every  cause 
and  activity  for  good,  bringing  them  together  and  express- 
ing their  will.  Something  could  be  provided  in  the  nature 
of  a  Community  Council  of  Religious  Education  in  which 
each  church  and  each  church  school,  each  public  school, 
librar}'^,  and  like  organization  or  institution  would  have 
membership.  Through  their  representatives  the  churches 
and  the  other  agencies  would  co-operate  to  study  the  field, 
to  plan  co-ordinated  provision  for  all  the  needs  of  youth, 
to  co-operate  in  all  their  own  plans,  to  avoid  duplication 
and  competition,  and  to  prepare,  advertise,  and  execute  a 
unified  programme  for  the  entire  community.  That  would 
avoid  the  present  conflicts  and  difficulties  due  to  independent 
and  unstudied  action.* 

*  Keep  in  touch  with  all  wider  community  organizations.  State- 
wide movements  are  being  formed.  A  good  example  is  the  "A  Better 
Community  Movement  of  Illinois,"  Robert  E.  Hieronymus,  University, 
111.,  Community  Adviser.  The  convention  of  the  Religious  Education 
Association  in  1918  was  devoted  to  "organizing  the  community." 


160    THE  CHURCH  AND  COMMUNITY  WELFARE 

Attention  has  been  paid  to  recreation  in  this  chapter,  not 
because  it  is  thought  to  be  the  only  problem,  but  because 
it  is  so  pertinent  and  so  well  illustrates  the  method  in  the 
many  fields  suggested  in  the  chapter  on  "  Social  Service." 

The  most  important  relation  of  the  church  to  community 
welfare  will  be  an  educational  one.  Our  interest  and  ac- 
tivity in  doing  things  must  never  be  allowed  to  eclipse  the 
duty  of  the  church  as  an  inspirational  agency.  It  may  be 
a  good  thing  to  organize  the  men  of  the  church  into  a  road- 
scraping  brigade,  but  it  is  better  by  far  to  carry  out  a  pro- 
gramme of  so  systematically  inspiring  those  men  with  the 
ideals  of  the  rightly  adjusted  community  that  they  will 
never  be  contented  with  anything  less  than  the  realization 
of  the  ideal.  The  direct  service  of  a  church  in  community 
welfare  justifies  itself  only  as  an  essential  part  of  the  educa- 
tional programme  of  that  church.  Primarily  and  ultimately, 
the  ideal  community  depends  upon  ideal  character,  and  ideal 
character  comes  about  through  inspiration,  leadership,  nur- 
ture, and  service  under  conditions  that  foster  personal 
growth.  In  all  our  thinking  about  community  welfare  we 
must  often  look  beyond  mechanisms  to  the  product  and  be- 
yond the  physical  conditions  which  determine  life  to  life 
itself.  Nor  must  we  make  the  fatal  error  of  confounding 
means  with  end,  of  urging  people  to  live  merely  for  clean 
streets,  libraries,  playgrounds,  and  aesthetic  pleasures.  The 
church  must  take  her  place  of  leadership  in  developing  all 
these  agencies  to  their  highest  efficiency  and  in  applying 
them  with  the  greatest  economy  to  the  product  of  the  better, 
saner,  and  finer  life. 


REFERENCES  IGl 


REFERENCES 

I.    GENERAL 

Strayer,  p.  M.,  Reconstruction  of  the  Church,  part  II,  chap.  IV  (Mac- 
millan,  1915). 

Earp,  Edwin  L.,  Social  Aspects  of  Religums  Institutions  (Eaton  & 
Mains,  1908). 

Carroll,  C.  E.,  Community  Survey  (Abingdon  Press,  1915). 

Aronovici,  Carol,  Knowing  One's  Own  Community  (American  Uni- 
tarian Association;  free). 

Edwards,  R.  H.,  Popular  Amusements,  part  III,  on  ''Survey  of  Re- 
creation" (Association  Press,  1915). 

Ward,  Harry  P.,  Christianizing  the  Community  (Association  Press, 
1917). 

II.  recreation 

Chubb,  Percival,  Festivals  and  Play  (Harpers,  1912). 

Young,  H.  P.,  Character  Through  Recreation  (American  Sunday  SchooJ 

Union,  1915),  chap.  XII;    "The  Girl  and  Her  Recreations," 

in  Character   Through  Recreation,  chap.  XIV;    "Amusements 

and  the  Church." 
Whittaker,  R.,  Laughter  and  Life  (American  Sunday  School  Union, 

1915). 

III.   YOUTH 

Bowen,  L.  de  K.,  Safeguards  for  City  Youth  (Macmillan,  1916). 
Gates,  H.  W.,  Recreation  and  the  Church  (University  of  Chicago  Press, 

1917). 
Hart,  J.  K.,  Educational  Resources  of  Village  and  Rural  Community 

(Macmillan,  1913). 
Rauschenbusch,  W.,  "The  Rights  of  the  Child  m  the  Community," 

Religious  Education  for  June,  1915. 
Addaius,  Jane,  Spirit  of  Youth  and  the  City  Streets  (Macmillan,  1909). 


CHAPTER    XIV 
TRAINING  WORKERS 

One  of  the  striking  differences  between  the  church  of 
fifty  years  ago  and  the  one  of  to-day  lies  in  the  extent  to 
which  the  laity  shares  in  the  parish  work.  Formerly  in 
very  many  churches  the  ordained  clergyman  was  the  one 
minister;  to  him  was  committed  all  the  parish  work,  ser- 
vices, charities,  and  nearly  all  the  teaching.  In  the  modern 
church  the  minister  is  the  leader  who  organizes  all  his  peo- 
ple for  service  so  that  they  become  a  force  to  carry  on  all 
the  work  of  the  parish.  He  ministers  in  the  services  of  wor- 
ship; but  he  depends  on  them  to  do  much  of  the  work  that 
reaches  out  in  other  forms.  In  a  word,  the  modern  church 
conducts  a  group  of  enterprises  by  the  services  of  all  its 
people.  It  has  become  an  axiom  of  efficiency  that  every- 
one shall  have  some  share  in  the  ministry  of  the  church.* 

THE  VOGUE  OF  THE  DILETTANTE 

The  efficiency  of  the  modern  church  depends  on  lay  ser- 
vice; therefore  it  must  be  evident  that  there  can  be  no 
more  efficiency  in  the  church  than  there  is  in  its  workers. 
Where  entire  responsibility  rested  upon  a  few  men,  or  on 
one,  and  where  religious  work  was  committed  only  to  pro- 
fessional   workers,   these  could   be  professionally  trained. 

*  On  lay  preaching  and  its  extent  in  Great  Britain,  see  chap.  IV  of 
The  Efficient  Layman,  by  Henry  F,  Cope. 

162 


THE  VOGUE  OF  THE  DILETTANTE        163 

Where  the  work  is  committed  to  many  and  divided  amongst 
the  untrained  the  difficulties  of  securing  efficiency  are  in- 
creased. We  seem  to  have  forgotten  that  if  the  church 
needs  a  trained  ministry  training  is  just  as  necessary  when  the 
ministers  are  many  as  when  they  are  few,  just  as  helpful 
when  the  work  is  scattered  amongst  the  laity  as  when  it  is 
centred  in  the  clergy.  True,  it  is  not  possible  to  have  the 
same  degree  and  character  of  expertness  in  the  work  of  many 
laymen  as  in  that  of  a  few  professionals,  but  the  principle 
is  irrefutable  that  the  degree  of  expertness  in  all  establishes 
the  measure  of  efficiency  and  of  success. 

It  is  also  true  when  operations  are  democratized  that  the 
weakest  and  least  efficient  may  determine  the  success  or 
failure  of  the  whole.  It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  every 
la;yTnan,  or  any,  should  go  to  a  theological  seminary — ^that 
would  evidently  be  impossible  to  them  as  laymen.  But 
it  is  not  wise  to  assume  that  zeal  to  do  good,  or  that  which 
often  passes  for  such  zeal — assumption  of  religious  leader- 
ship— will  constitute  a  sufficient  qualification  for  worth-while 
service.  Nor  is  it  w^ise  to  assume,  as  we  commonly  do  in 
church  work,  that  all  lay  service  must  be  devoid  of  any  other 
than  native  ability,  that  somehow  God  will  bless  work  that 
is  done  by  those  who  "mean  well,"  even  though  they  never 
move  from  meaning  to  trying.  We  seem  to  fear  that  lay 
work  might  no  longer  be  of  a  volunteer  character  if  the 
workers  were  really  to  train  for  it. 

The  modern  church  has  discovered  the  layman  so  far  as 
his  enlistment  for  service  is  concerned,  but  it  has  not  dis- 
covered fully  the  possibilities  of  training.  It  follows  the 
abandoned  principle  of  volunteer  soldiering,  that  a  warmth 
of  devotion  atones  for  lack  of  preparation.     In  too  many 


164  TRAINING  WORKERS 

departments  of  American  life  we  are  fairly  infected  with  the 
vogue  of  the  amateur.  We  are  almost  ashamed  to  be  caught 
doing  things  well. 

A  CURRICULUM  FOR  SERVICE 

The  educational  programme  of  the  church  must  include 
the  training  of  its  own  working  forces.  A  church  is  a  con- 
tinuous stream  of  personaUties;  new  life  is  ever  coming  up 
into  its  force  as  other  lives  pass  on  from  its  field.  It  must 
be  ever  preparing,  always  training  its  workers  for  the  service 
they  are  to  render.  But  where  has  any  church  adopted  a 
programme  really  planned  to  prepare  its  own  force  ?  To 
what  extent  has  it  entered  our  consciousness  when  planning 
the  curricula  of  church  schools  that  the  people  who  were  to 
be  taught  would  some  day  live  as  members  and  workers  in 
a  church  ?  The  truth  is  that  the  curriculum  of  instruction, 
in  spite  of  all  our  boasted  progress  in  gradation  and  differ- 
entiation, are  still  planned,  in  many  instances,  on  one  of  two 
hypotheses,  either  that  the  student  is  about  to  die  or  that 
he  is  expecting  to  live  in  a  theological  seminary.  We  are 
not  preparing  youth  to  live  in  a  real  society  that  seeks  to 
do  God's  will;  there  are  but  few  attempts  to  train  them  in 
the  life  of  such  a  society  as  it  would  be  expressed  through 
the  church.  The  majority  of  curricula,  apparently,  seek  to 
give  the  student  a  fairly  consecutive  and  articulated  knowl- 
edge of  the  Bible.  In  some  progressive  schools  the  Bible 
is  divided  according  to  the  abilities  of  the  child  to  under- 
stand it  as  story,  literature,  narrative,  and  history.  These 
courses  are  determined  by  a  "  body-of-knowledge ''  concept: 
biblical  history,  literature,  and  theology;  others  add  courses 
in  later  church  history,  and  a  few  include  instruction  in 


A  CURRICULUM  FOR  SERVICE  165 

the  history  of  modern  missions  and,  rarely,  a  course  on 
present-day  social  problems.  The  "Christian  Nurture 
Courses"  *  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  frankly  rec- 
ognize the  relations  of  the  child  toward  the  church  as  a 
member,  as  one  growing  up  in  its  life.  But  even  these  do 
not,  so  far,  attempt  in  any  way  to  train  men  and  women,  es- 
pecially the  young,  for  actual  work  in  parishes. 

A  beginning  has  been  made  in  the  familiar  teacher-training 
propaganda,  but  even  the  most  optimistic  must  recognize  its 
limitations:  it  prepares  only  for  one  task;  the  preparation 
is  narrow;  it  has  affected  only  a  small  number  of  teachers; 
it  is  not  succeeding  in  preparing  young  people  to  begin  teach- 
ing. The  most  serious  defect,  however,  lies  in  the  failure  to 
conceive  teacher  training  as  an  integral  part  of  the  whole 
programme  of  lay  training.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  church  to 
prepare  every  one  of  its  people  for  an  intelligent  and  efficient 
share  in  rehgious  usefulness.  One  cannot  live  the  Christian 
life  unless  he  does  his  full  share  of  the  work  of  the  kingdom. 

Generally  speaking,  at  this  time  the  church  lacks  conscious- 
ness of  the  necessity  of  preparing  its  future  workers  by  a 
training  which  shall  begin  early  in  their  lives.  It  has  no 
comprehensive  plans  of  training  which  look  specifically  to 
the  future  of  children  and  youth  in  the  church.  It  must 
reconsider  all  its  curricula  in  the  light  of  the  kind  of  life  and 
society  it  is  seeking.  It  must  test  all  courses  of  study  by  the 
actual  experience  of  life  in  a  Christian  order  and  also  by 
the  coming  experience  of  the  students  in  work  in  churches. 
The  church  school  must  prepare  for  church  service. 

*  First  issued  in  1916  and  used  experimentally  by  a  selected  group  of 
schools.  Published  by  the  General  Board  of  Religious  Education, 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  New  York. 


166  TRAINING  WORKERS 

Because  of  the  lack  of  a  programme  of  training  this  is 
what  usually  happens  when  tasks  are  to  be  assigned.  At  a 
church  meeting  called  for  the  purpose,  men  and  women 
are  elected  or  appointed  to  various  offices  and  duties.  The 
greater  number  will  be  persons  reappointed  simply  be- 
cause they  have  had  experience;  they  have  learned  some- 
thing of  their  task  in  the  crude  school  of  hit-and-miss.  The 
habitual  office-holder  exists  not  so  much  because  he  likes  the 
job — though  that  is  a  factor — ^but  more  because  in  holding 
office  he  has  had  some  training  and  the  church  knows  it 
needs  trained  services.  The  new  incumbents  face  tasks  of 
which  they  have  only  the  faintest  conception.  They  must 
be  initiated  into  tliem  through  the  school  of  bungling,  un- 
guided  experimentation;  all  work  must  be  halted  or  slowed 
down  while  they  are  learning  or  perhaps  paralyzed  while 
they  make  costly  mistakes.  We  who  would  not  think  of 
permitting  an  amateur  to  cut  our  coats,  blithely  commit  to 
wholly  untrained  men  and  women  the  most  important  en- 
terprises for  which  we  are  responsible. 

The  remedy  is  so  simple  that  the  stating  of  the  problem 
makes  its  solution  evident:  plan  and  provide  training,  based 
on  the  actual  work  of  the  modern  church,  for  all  youth  and 
young  people. 

CHURCH  AVOCATIONAL  TRAINING 

If  efficient  workers  are  neither  found  by  accident  nor 
born  to  efficiency  they  must  be  made  or  trained.  Such  train- 
ing is  possible  only  where  it  becomes  a  definite  part  of  the 
programme  of  the  church.  Here  lies  one  of  the  responsi- 
bilities of  the  committee  or  board  of  education  in  the  local 
church,  and  wherever  a  director  of  religious  education  is 


CHURCH  AVOCATIONAL  TRAINING        167 

employed  this  is  one  of  his  duties.  The  committee  should 
provide  for  a  department  of  training  with  one  or  more 
supervisors  of  training  who  will  work  under  the  general  super- 
intendent or  the  director.  The  duties  of  the  supervisors  of 
training  would  be  twofold:  to  see  that  proper  and  adequate 
courses  of  instruction  in  practical  religious  work  are  avail- 
able for  the  preparation  of  all  voluntary  workers  and  to 
see  that  actual  experience  in  developing  forms  of  rehgious 
service  is  so  available  and  attractive  that  workers  are 
actually  trained  in  and  by  work. 

This  plan  calls  for  an  extension  of  the  present  provision 
for  the  training  of  church-school  teachers.  One  weakness 
of  this  work  has  been  its  artificial  limitations  to  the  work 
of  teaching  and  to  the  immediate  field  of  the  school.  Both 
are  of  prime  importance,  but  they  should  be  seen  as  integral 
to  the  whole  programme  of  voluntary  activities  in  the  church. 
The  special  preparation  of  teachers  will  then  be  simply  a 
part  of  the  work  of  this  department.  Some  of  the  courses 
now  offered  for  teachers  should  be  required  of  all  who 
expect  to  do  any  work  in  religion;  the  especially  valuable 
and  necessary  ones  are  those  which  give  in  simple  terms  an 
introductory  study  in  the  nature  of  the  spiritual  life  and  its 
development  and  in  the  modern  methods  of  education. 

Two  divisions  of  instruction  should  be  held  clearly  in 
mind:  first,  a  series  of  general  courses  on  the  fundamental 
principles  of  religious  work,  including  method  and  forms  of 
organization.  Second,  specialized  courses  each  dealing  in 
greater  detail  with  different  forms  or  types  of  work.  The 
first  courses  would  be  offered  to  all;  they  would  include  the 
present  fundamental  course  in  teacher  training,  together 
with  simple  courses  on  the  organization  of  the  church  and 


168  TRAINING  WORKERS 

other  agencies  for  religious  work,  the  history  of  such  organiza- 
tions, and  the  methods  of  ^^arious  forms  of  parish  activity.* 

The  second  group  of  courses  would  come  under  two  types, 
regular  class  work  and  series  of  general  lectures.  The 
class-work  would  be  based  upon  text-book  study  with  thor- 
ough training  in  actual  practice  under  competent  direction 
and  with  supervised  observation  and  investigation.  Usually 
only  a  very  few  courses  could  be  carried  in  any  one  year. 
The  teachers  would  be  those  who  had  had  special  training 
and  experience  in  the  fields  studied.  The  subjects  would  be 
forms  of  church  work,  especially  in  relation  to  the  general 
social  and  civic  work  of  the  parish.  The  courses  now  offered 
in  the  schools  of  civics  and  philanthropy!  indicate  many  of 
the  forms  of  training  which,  brought  within  the  scope  of 
voluntary  work,  would  be  most  useful  in  preparation  for 
worth-while  lay  service. 

The  lecture  courses  would  be  given  to  adults,  usually,  at 
the  school  period,  or  during  the  week,  by  leaders  in  different 
forms  of  social  and  religious  work.  They  would  be  de- 
signed to  stimulate  to  service  and  to  more  exact  study. 
The  subjects  would  include  outstanding  aspects  or  divisions 
of  church  work,  forms  of  community  service,  immediate 
community  problems,  and  the  broader  institutions  and 
organizations  of  religious  service. 

PREPARING   CHILDREN 

It  is  evidently  relatively  easy  to  provide  for  the  training 
of  young  people  and  adults;    the  more  serious  problem  is 

*  Already  several  such  courses  are  available,  e.  g. :  The  Church  as  a 
Field  of  Service,  by  C.  H.  Rust  (American  Baptist  Publication  Society), 
and  The  Modem  Church,  by  P.  A.  Nordell  (Scribners). 

t  As  in  New  York  School  of  Philanthropy  and  Chicago  School  of 
Civics. 


LABORATORY  TRAINING  1G9 

that  of  preparation  and  training  earlier  in  life.  Since  the 
habits  of  life  are  being  determined  in  childhood,  right  social- 
religious  habits  must  be  formed  at  this  time.  Religious  use- 
fulness is  as  much  a  matter  of  attitude  of  mind  as  of  aptitude 
or  ability.  Mental  attitudes  are  taking  form  very  early  in 
life.  The  best  laymen  are  those  to  whom  the  life  of  the 
church  and  its  work  have  always  been  normal.  Ideally 
the  child  learns  the  life  of  the  church  just  as  he  learns  the 
life  of  the  family,  by  living  it.  But  even  in  the  family  there 
is  provision  made  for  incidental  instruction  in  home  living. 
In  a  well-ordered  family  the  training  begins  quite  early  in 
life.  Similar  training  is  needed  in  the  life  of  the  church. 
It  cannot  be  accomplished  by  formal  courses.  But  all 
instruction  and  all  activities  should  be  planned  with  the 
child's  developing  relations  to  the  church  in  mind.  In 
many  Sunday-school  lessons  there  are  excellent,  perfectly 
natural  opportunities  to  develop  right  concepts  of  the 
church.  An  explanation  of  the  meaning  and  work  of  this 
society  which  is  immediately  before  the  child's  eyes  is  much 
more  real  and  normal  than  attempts  to  reconstruct  the  an- 
cient temple  or  the  tabernacle.  All  such  instruction  should 
be  graded  according  to  the  pupil's  developing  abilities  to 
experience  the  life  and  work  of  the  church.  It  should  be 
accompanied  by  opportunities  for  active  participation  in 
that  work;  all  graded  social  service  should  be  part  of  churchly 
training.* 

LABORATORY  TRAINING 

We  cannot  too  strongly  insist  that  it  is  altogether  foolish 
to  expect  that  men  and  women,  young  or  old,  will  take  seri- 

*  An  example  of  the  training  of  young  children  is  to  be  found  in  the 
lessons  of  the  Beginner's  Course  in  The  Completely  Graded  Series 
(Scribners).  -  -i 


170  TRAINING  WORKERS 

ously  or  perform  efficiently  tasks  for  which  they  have  had 
no  preparation.  We  cannot  too  strongly  insist  on  the  right 
of  young  people,  especially,  to  an  intelligent  understanding 
of  the  history,  the  aims,  and  the  present  methods  of  the 
church  and  of  religious  work  throughout  the  community. 
But,  having  done  all  that  may  be  done  to  provide  courses 
of  instruction  it  is  wise  to  remember  that  instruction  is  but 
a  small  part  of  training.  A  baseball  "guide"  does  not  make 
a  good  short-stop.  In  fact,  no  boy  ever  thinks  of  looking 
in  the  guide  until  he  has  been  in  the  game.  That  is  true 
of  all  real  training;  the  worth-while  instruction  is  that 
which  is  sought  because  experience  has  revealed  its  necessity. 
Then  when  it  is  given  it  has  meaning  in  reality,  it  stands  out 
in  the  Hght  of  experience,  it  finds  immediate,  related  content 
in  the  mind. 

The  one  way  to  secure  trained  workers  is  to  see  that  every 
one  has  a  real  opportunity  to  experience  work.  There  is 
no  appetite  for  training  where  no  task  is  realized.  This 
principle  goes  rather  deeper  than  that  which  says  that  all 
instruction  must  be  carried  over  into  definite  experience  in 
action;  it  says  that  so  far  as  training  is  concerned,  the  one 
motive  which  gives  meaning  to  training  rises  in  experience, 
that  some  effort  in  w^ork  precedes  worth-while  study.  Un- 
less training  rises  out  of  a  conscious  need  it  is  likely  to  be 
only  perfunctory.  Its  message  is  only  a  series  of  empty 
symbols  unless  experience  gives  them  content.  What 
does  this  involve  ?  Simply  that  the  directors  of  training  will 
see  that  all  along  through  their  growing  lives  the  boys  and 
girls,  young  men  and  women,  maintain  the  custom  of  actual 
participation  in  the  service  which  the  church  does,  so  that 
training  may  rise  out  of  a  developing  consciousness  of  mean- 
ing and  reality  in  the  work. 


LABORATORY  TRAINING  171 

"Learning  by  doing"  will  be  the  guiding  principle  of  the 
church  in  training  her  workers.  Class  instruction  alone,  by 
formal  lessons,  will  have  about  the  same  practical  results  as 
book-lessons  in  swimming.  But  the  processes  by  which  the 
boys  acquired  facility  in  the  old  swimming-hole  are  much 
simpler  than  those  we  can  use  to-day  in  habituating  young 
people  to  service  in  the  church.  Boys  took  to  the  water  as 
to  a  native  element;  the  church,  too  often,  is  foreign  to 
them.  Dashing,  splashing,  and  performing  appealed  to 
them;  we  must  find  in  church  work  like  appeals  to  the  stren- 
uous and  the  heroic  in  the  adolescent. 

Let  it  be  said  that  "learning  by  doing"  does  not  mean 
that  we  acquire  at  once  the  final  facilities  by  doing  what- 
ever they  may  require.  We  learn  to  walk  by  crawling,  to  do 
a  "crawl"  in  the  water  by  very  rude  efforts  of  a  dog-paddle 
order,  or  by  the  breast  stroke.  The  boy  comes  into  the 
man's  abilities  as  he  does  well  and  often  the  boy's  tasks; 
these  lead  to  the  lad's  work  and  this  to  the  man's.  In  the 
church  a  boy's  work,  normally  suitable  for  boys,  is  a  part 
of  the  process  of  development  through  which  the  man's 
work  is  reached.  And  who  knows  but  that  the  man's  work 
is  but  as  the  infant's  preparation  for  a  larger  life  and  its 
w^ork?  Avoid  the  blight  of  anticipation.  It  not  only  sets 
before  the  young  impossible  tasks,  but  to  attempt  them 
robs  the  future  of  all  promise  and  freshness.  The  boy  of 
thirteen  who  testifies  in  prayer  meeting  like  a  gray-beard 
and  takes  offices  like  a  deacon  has  a  desert  experience  be- 
fore him;  church-life  stretches  blank,  with  no  promise  of 
greatness  yet  to  be  achieved. 

Such  directed  participation  in  work  and  instruction  in 
methods  does  much  more  than  secure  to  the  church  a  steady 
stream  of  workers;  it  secures  to  each  worker  a  normal,  steady 


172  TRAINING  WORKERS 

development  In  life.  The  church  owes  this  training  and 
experience  to  its  people;  it  is  not  only  a  means  of  efficiency 
in  tlie  organization,  it  is  absolutely  essential  to  the  normal 
development  of  the  spiritual  life  of  its  people.  It  belongs  in 
the  educational  programme  not  for  the  preservation  of  the 
institution,  but  for  the  purpose  of  meeting  the  necessities  of 
growing  lives.  This  whole  life  of  the  persons  grows  as  it 
seeks  to  give  itself  away  in  service.  It  does  not  work  in 
order  that  it  may  grow;  it  works  because  it  is  hungry  for 
life,  because  it  feels  the  passion  of  larger  life  and  would  give 
to  every  one  that  life.  It  counts  not  at  all  the  stages  of  its 
own  growth,  and  it  measures  not  at  all  the  price  it  pays 
to  give  life  to  others.  While  we  have  been  looking  at  the 
mechanisms  of  training  workers  w^e  must  not  allow  them  to 
obscm-e  the  movement  of  life.  There  will  be  no  efficient 
workers  without  this  passion  for  souls,  for  life,  without  the 
spirit  of  Him  who  said :  "  I  am  come  that  they  might  have 
life  and  might  have  it  more  abundantly."*  This  desire  is 
the  spring  of  all  fruitful  endeavor.  Men  find  their  own 
lives  when  they  fling  them  away  to  give  life,  and  the  higher, 
finer,  and  more  efficient  the  life  and  service  they  give  the 
finer  the  life  they  find. 

REFERENCES 

Clark,  F.  G.,  Training  the  Church  of  the  Future  (Funk  and  Wagnalls, 

1902). 
Cope,  Henry  F.,  The  Efficient  Layman  (American  Baptist  Publication 

Society,  1911). 
Smith,  Fred.  B.,  A  Man's  Religion  (Association  Press,  1913). 

*  John  10  :  10. 


CHAPTER  XV 
YOUNG  PEOPLE 

The  problem  of  "the  young  people"  is  a  perennial  one 
with  the  church.  It  will  cease  to  exist  only  when  the  church 
no  longer  has  any  young  people.  It  arises  from  the  fact 
that  they  are  young  people,  not  old  people;  that  is  to  say, 
they  are  people  in  the  making.  They  are  the  potential 
factors  in  the  church.  All  attempts  to  solve  the  problem 
have  been  successful  in  the  degree  that  they  have  recognized 
this  fact  and  its  implications.  The  Young  People's  Society 
movements  seemed  so  rich  in  promise  because  they  recog- 
nized some  of  the  special  needs  of  growing  persons.  They 
offered  activities  different,  at  least  in  a  degree,  from  those  for 
adults;  they  afforded  a  special  environment;  they  called 
for  activity  rather  than  for  contemplation,  and  they  offered 
scope  for  the  enthusiasms  of  youth. 

Why,  then,  have  the  young  people's  societies  so  generally 
failed  to  realize  our  early  high  hopes  ?  Principally  because 
their  programmes  were  not  determined  by  sufficient  loyalty 
to  the  fact  that  they  were  dealing  with  growing  lives.  They 
prescribed  forms  of  worship  and  activity  which  were  much 
like  old  folks'  garments  cut  down  to  fit  young  ones.  The 
adults  had  worship,  prayer,  and  testimony  meetings;  it 
was  natural  to  suggest:  Why  not  let  the  young  people 
have  their  own  meetings,  essentially  the  same,  but  worked 

173 


174  YOUNG  PEOPLE 

out  and  conducted  by  themselves?  The  experiment  made 
a  strong  appeal  to  youth  because  it  afforded  them  an  oppor- 
tunity to  have  something  of  their  own  and  to  do  some 
things  for  themselves.  The  first  wave  of  enthusiasm  was 
due  to  the  fact  that  for  the  first  time  the  social  needs  of 
young  people  were  recognized  by  the  churches.  Such  recog- 
nition always  will  secure  a  response  in  youth.  But  if  the 
loyal  ^enthusiasms  are  to  be  maintained  forms  of  activity 
must  be  offered  which  grow  out  of  the  lives  of  youth  and 
which  express  their  ideals. 

The  Young  People's  Society  still  has  a  large  measure  of 
vitality  where  it  has  passed  from  the  emphasis  of  wearing 
badges,  attending  conventions,  and  rendering  testimonies. 
In  the  Christian  Endeavor  movement  there  has  been  a 
serious  attempt  to  develop  plans  of  normal  religious  activi- 
ties. If  the  churches  had  more  generally  adopted  the  pro- 
grammes of  civic,  social,  and  missionary  activities  we 
would  have  a  much  larger  proportion  of  trained  religious 
workers  to-day.  But  the  plans  of  the  society  have  lacked 
consistency.  Wisely  selected  activities  have  been  paralleled 
by  "devotional"  programmes  which  certainly  would  not  be 
normal  to  young  people. 

When  these  societies  were  first  organized  there  were  few 
forms  of  social  life  for  the  young;  to-day  their  social  pro- 
grammes are  likely  to  be  crowded.  Consider,  as  one  in- 
stance, the  development  of  social  life  in  the  modern  high 
school.  Its  various  clubs,  societies,  entertainments  and 
activities  often  engross  all  youth's  free  time.  Admirable 
as  much  of  this  social  life  may  be,  it  has  not  found  helpful 
relations  to  the  work  of  the  churches.  Indeed,  the  tendency 
in  many  places  is  toward  a  keen  sense  of  rivalry  between 


'^ 


AX  EDUCATIONAL  PROGRAMME  175 

churches  and  high  schools.  The  churches  complain  that  the 
school  pre-empts  all  the  time  of  young  people  and,  also, 
that  its  social  life  is  often  harmful.  The  latter  criticism  is 
often  just,  for  outside  of  their  class-work  many  high  schools 
are  very  like  many  churches,  entirely  without  a  purposeful 
programme  for  young  people. 

The  problem  persists.  In  spite  of  all  that  has  been  done 
it  is  accentuated  rather  than  relieved;  the  pressure  of  city 
living,  the  appeals  of  commercialized  amusements,  the 
vogue  of  excitement,  all  make  it  increasingly  difficult  for 
the  church  to  win  and  hold  the  very  people  who  are  its  one 
hope  for  the  next  generation.  What  hope  is  there  in  an 
educational  programme  ?  It  can  be  said  at  once  that  there 
is  larger  promise  in  an  educational  programme  simply  be- 
cause the  church  has  for  its  young  people  an  educational 
purpose.  Once  see  clearly  that  the  church  seeks  first  of  all 
to  develop  these  young  lives  to  their  fulness;  acknowledge 
this  educational  process  and  purpose  and  the  educational 
programme  becomes  inevitable. 

AN  EDUCATIONAL  PROGRAMME 

An  educational  programme  for  the  work  of  the  church 
with  youth  will  be  based  upon  certain  quite  simple  considera- 
tions: What  do  we  seek  to  accomplish  with  young  people? 
What  are  their  special  needs  and  interests  at  this  period? 
In  what  ways  can  the  powers  of  their  lives  be  applied  to  the 
programme  of  the  church  for  them?  The  first  question  is 
answered  in  the  already  formulated  aim  of  the  church;  it 
will  be  the  work  of  the  church  to  guide  their  lives  into  ful- 
ness, into  Christlikeness,  and  into  the  habits  and  abilities 
of  a  Christian  society. 


176  YOUNG  PEOPLE 

But,  simple  as  such  a  statement  of  purpose  seems  to  be,  it 
touches  one  of  the  radical  causes  of  failure  with  young  peo- 
ple. The  church  has  not  sought  so  much  to  grow  them  as 
to  get  them.  It  has  been  more  anxious  to  hold  them  to 
itself  than  to  lead  them  into  full  life.  It  has  been  thinking 
of  their  adherence  rather  than  of  their  development.  One 
still  hears  the  lament  about  the  young  people  slipping  away, 
as  though  their  one  function  was  that  of  a  limpet,  to  stick  by 
the  church.  Of  course  the  underlying  conception  is  the  com- 
mon one  that  the  church  is  an  end  in  itself,  existing  for  no 
other  purpose  than  that  people  should  belong  to  it  and  sup- 
port it,  that  failure  to  do  this  is  evidence  of  hopeless  de- 
pravity and  persistence  therein  the  sole  sign  of  grace. 
This  notion  is  a  part  of  our  traditional  attitude  toward  all 
institutions.  But  the  youth  is  not  governed  by  tradition. 
He  must  have  a  reason  in  values.  He  does  not  belong  for 
the  sake  of  belonging.  He  is  waiting  for  evidence  that  the 
church  has  a  definite  purpose  for  him. 

The  church  will  find  the  first  step  toward  the  solution  of 
the  youth  problem  in  the  acceptance  of  the  principle  that 
all  that  is  done  is  determined,  not  by  the  needs  of  the  insti- 
tution, but  by  some  clearly  seen  purpose.  It  would  make  all 
the  difference  between  waste  and  efficiency,  between  mere 
performance  and  accomplishment,  if  we  should  stop  and 
ask  regarding  all  that  is  done  for  youth:  In  what  way  is 
this  designed  to  accomplish  the  great  purpose  of  the  church 
with  these  young  people,  to  make  their  lives  more  Godlike, 
to  enable  them  to  realize  a  God-willed  world  ?  To  hold  up 
this  standard  test  before  all  proposed  schemes  will  save  from 
much  w^aste  of  energy.  Steadily  to  test  all  plans  and  work 
in  the  light  of  that  purpose  wull  mean  the  gradual  discovery 


SPECIAL  NEEDS  177 

of  the  importance  of  the  next  great  question :  What  are  the 
special  needs  and  interests  of  young  people? 

SPECIAL  NEEDS 

The  interests  of  youth  are  based  upon  their  needs.  The 
special  needs  of  this  period  rise  from  the  critical  character 
of  the  years  of  adolescence.  It  is  the  period  of  conscious 
and  deep  physical  changes,  of  readjustments  in  the  body, 
and  of  the  rise  of  important  functions.  It  is  the  period  when 
the  will  is  applied  not  alone  to  single  acts  as  the}^  rise,  but 
to  courses  of  conduct,  to  the  trend  of  the  life.  It  is,  above 
aU,  the  time  of  social  awakening,  when  lives  become  con- 
scious one  of  another,  and  become  conscious  of  the  fact  and 
the  joy  and  force  of  group  relationships.  At  this  time  the 
facts  of  sex  differentiation  become  impressive  and  tend  to 
strengthen  social  groupings.  In  the  restless  vigor  of  this 
period  life's  choices  are  being  made  and  its  habits  settled. 
Life  as  an  experience  and  a  reality  rises  into  consciousness, 
and  what  it  shall  mean  and  what  it  shall  be  is  now  largely 
determined. 

What  then  do  young  people  need  that  the  church  can  give 
theniT 

First :  Simple,  personal  guidance  through  friendship.  The 
greatest  need  of  every  young  man  and  every  young  woman 
is  some  friend,  only  just  a  little  older  either  in  years  or  in 
imagination — or  both — ^to  whom  they  can  talk  freely,  who 
can  help  them  over  the  difficult  places  of  experience  into  the 
new  facts  of  life.  Perhaps  friends  of  this  kind  may  be  found 
by  planning  for  them,  by  organization;  but  it  is  doubtful 
if  much  can  be  accomphshed  to  meet  this  need  by  schemes 
assigning  older  persons  over  younger  ones.     Friendships  of 


178  YOUNG  PEOPLE 

this  character  come  naturally  by  personal  gravitation.  And 
they  rise  out  of  a  general  condition  of  natural  friendliness, 
out  of  normal  relatedness.  The  youth  finds  friends  in  any 
group  that  is  normal  to  him. 

Youth  grows  in  the  soil  of  personality;  its  one  out- 
standing appetite  is  for  friendship.  It  is  strongly  gregarious. 
To  be  with  young  persons  in  a  natural  way,  under  normal 
conditions,  is  to  do  the  most  that  can  be  done  for  them;  the 
rest  is  but  incidental.  The  church  must  have  a  real  place 
for  people  who  are  not  yet  grown  up  and  settled  down.  It 
needs  an  organization-consciousness  below  the  adult  stage. 
Where  it  offers  a  natural  personal  environment,  a  normal 
group  of  lives  of  young  people,  there  the  youth  will  find  in 
such  a  group,  unconsciously  and  without  effort,  those  persons 
who  meet  his  need  for  friendship,  those  to  whom  he  can  di- 
rect his  pent-up  loyalties.  The  real  pastoral  work,  the  per- 
sonal shepherding  of  young  people,  will  be  done  not  in 
formal  calls,  but  in  just  such  ways  as  these,  through  the 
leadership  of  lives,  under  the  tractive  power  of  friendship, 
under  the  impulse  of  personal  fellowship  and  loyalty. 

Second  :  The  sense  of  group  relatedness.  In  an  educational 
scheme,  how  can  we  provide  for  such  relationships  of  youth 
to  the  church  as  shall  develop  his  sense  of  really  belonging  ? 
The  church  usually  is  not  normal  to  youth.  The  boy  of 
sixteen  becomes  a  member;  but  in  what  sense  does  he  be- 
long ?  It  is  not  his  crowd.  He  feels  as  though  he  were  not 
yet  on  the  inside,  and  will  not  be  until  he  can  wear  a  frock 
coat  with  easy  dignity.  All  the  work  is  being  done  by  very 
mature  persons;  they  hold  all  offices.  Except  for  a  few 
other  young  persons,  apparently  quite  negligible,  he  is  an 
outsider. 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  ACTIVITY  179 

Young  people  never  realize  membership  until  they  have  a 
share  in  work.  A  boy's  sense  of  really  being  a  part  of  the 
family  grows,  not  out  of  the  habit  of  receiving  its  benefits, 
but  in  the  measure  that  he  shares  its  duties,  in  the  measure 
that  he  is  made  conscious  of  responsibilities.  The  church 
becomes  the  larger  family  to  those  who  are  growing  out 
into  the  world's  larger  life  in  the  measure  that  they  share 
its  work  and  feel  the  weight  of  its  duties.  This  is  the 
programme  of  growth  for  the  young:  to  take  up  their  work. 
To  them  the  task  is  not  irksome,  for  it  is  not  a  task;  if  it  is 
real  and  worth  while  it  is  the  very  thing  they  are  longing  to 
do.  They  enter  into  life,  into  each  day's  larger  area  by 
the  doors  of  experience  and  above  all  by  the  experience  of 
the  world's  work. 

Third  :  Purposeful  activity.  It  is  not  work,  in  itself,  that 
makes  young  persons  grow;  it  is  work  as  experience  of  the 
real,  as  the  outreach  of  life  in  realizing  itself  in  the  larger 
life  of  the  world.  Youth  does  not  grow  simply  because  it 
exercises  its  muscles,  but  because  it  lives  more  largely,  it 
takes  over  more  of  life's  reality  in  the  work  and  the  play  it 
experiences.  Here,  then,  is  need  for  caution  to  see  that  all 
work  planned  for  young  people  is  real  and  not  factitious, 
that  it  constantly  means  enlarging  experience  of  the  religious 
life  through  its  ways  of  service.  Whatever  the  young  man 
does  must  be  to  him  convincingly  valuable,  consciously  a 
part  of  the  world's  work. 

THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  ACTIVITY 

Activity  directed  for  educational  purposes  must  have  at 
least  these  five  characteristics:  (1)  it  is  real;  it  has  to  the 
actor  the  sense  of  reality;   (2)  it  engages  the  powers  in  some 


180  YOUNG  PEOPLE 

complete  ways;  (3)  it  expresses  ideals  already  held  and 
reaches  forward  into  new  ones;  (4)  it  has  a  large  measure 
of  autonomy  rising  out  of  the  will  of  the  actor  or  actors; 
(5)  it  moves  into  group  organization  and  direction. 

Reality  is  a  matter  of  experience,  the  consciousness  in  the 
act  that  it  has  worth  of  its  own.  Play  is  real  to  the  child 
because  he  throws  himself  into  it  without  analysis;  it  is  real 
experience  and  its  goals  appear  to  him  essentially  worth 
while.  There  may  be  activity  for  youth  which  to  the  adult 
will  seem  to  have  little  more  basis  in  practical  utility  than 
play  has,  but  to  youth  it  will  have  reality  and  value.  If  we 
cannot  always  understand  such  values  we  can  at  least  avoid 
the  opposite  error  of  prescribing  duties  which,  while  they 
have  reality  to  us,  have  none  to  youth.  These  are  the  types 
of  "service"  usually  assigned  to  young  people  by  those  who 
have  allowed  memory  to  become  blurred  over  and  imagina- 
tion to  die.  A  sympathetic  imagination  and  a  keen  memory 
are  indispensable  in  those  who  would  lead  youth  to  service. 

Service  which  engages  the  poivers  of  the  life  in  some  complete 
way  means  an  activity  into  which  one  throws  himself  so  as 
to  absorb  the  interest  and  thus  secure  for  the  work  an  emo- 
tional backing.  Such  a  feeling  is  necessary  to  render  more 
easy  the  formation  of  habits,  to  associate  pleasure  with 
worthy  work,  and  to  develop  the  power  of  leading  others 
into  like  experience.  It  is  possible  only  as  the  tasks  become 
absorbing,  based  on  reality,  evidently  worthy  and  rich  in 
possible  enthusiasms.  At  first  it  may  seem  that  tasks  meet- 
ing such  specifications  are  few  indeed.  But  youth  is  sus- 
ceptible; its  enthusiasms  are  facile  and  responsive.  It 
often,  wisely,  measures  the  greatness  and  glory  of  a  task,  not 
by  the  work  itself,  but  by  the  vigor  and  glory  one  can  put 
into  it.    Whatever  is  real  and  has  elements  of  some  ideality 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  ACTIVITY  181 

can  become  absorbing  to  youth.  Watcli  a  young  man  who 
feels  the  responsibihty  of,  e.  g.,  the  hbrarian's  task  in  a 
school;  watch  the  young  officer  who  sees  a  nation's  glory  in 
his  "trivial  round";  watch  the  young  woman  who  has  the 
duty  of  leading  younger  girls  in  some  simple  activity.  In 
each  case  the  experience  has  an  emotional  backing  through 
ideahzation. 

Expression.  Youth  must  be  offered  helpful  ways  of  ex- 
pressing ideals  or  it  will  find  harmful  ways,  and  the  ideals 
will  become  swords  turned  back — or  they  will  perish.  The 
newly  awakened  social  consciousness  of  youth  results  in  an 
inner  struggle  between  the  self  world  and  the  social  world. 
The  experience  of  the  past  holds  him  to  the  motives  of  self- 
interest;  the  forward  push  of  life  would  make  him  boldly 
try  the  experiment  of  altruism.  Of  this  he  dreams.  When 
restraints  are  removed  from  conversation,  when  the  mask 
of  cynicism  is  dropped,  he  is  an  extreme  altruist.  If  that 
ideal  and  all  the  faith  and  loyalty  that  go  with  it  can  be  ex- 
perienced in  repeated  conduct  it  will  become  a  habit  of  his 
life.  Two  things  are  necessary  now — two  that  go  naturally 
together:  learning  and  labor — that  the  ideal  shall  be  clari- 
fied and  strengthened  both  by  presentation  and  illustration 
through  simple  teachings  and  by  actual  experience. 

The  loyalties  of  this  idealistic  peripd  will  fix  themselves  on 
worthy  examples  both  in  living  persons  and  in  heroes  and 
worthies  of  history.  Especially  at  the  beginning  of  the 
adolescent  period  young  people  should  be  saturated  with  the 
lives  of  the  truly  great  in  all  time.*  All  such  teaching 
must  be  without  moralizing,  without  consciousness  of  the 

*  As  examples  of  text-books  for  fourteen  years  of  age:  Heroes  oj  the 
Faith  (Scribners);  for  girls  of  eighteen:  Lives  Worth  Living  (Univ.  of 
Chicago  Press). 


182  YOUNG  PEOPLE 

purpose  on  the  part  of  the  learner.  Given  the  vision,  finding 
himself  in  the  eternal  goodly  fellowship  of  the  great,  he  will 
seek  to  be  worthy  of  them,  to  win  his  spurs,  to  do  his  work. 
Later  he  will  do  his  own  moralizing.  Whatever  is  learned 
must  be  lived.  Plan  to  keep  these  two  not  simply  parallel 
but  interwoven. 

Ideal  experience  of  the  kinds  suggested  pushes  the  life 
out  in  two  ways;  every  effort  brings  one  to  a  higher  plane 
of  thinking  where  the  air  is  clearer  and  where  the  further 
ascents,  rising  higher,  appeal  more  persuasively;  thus  ideals 
develop.  Then  experience  reaches  out  into  a  wider  fellows- 
ship,  it  finds  wider  neighborhoods.  This  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary if  the  personal  life  is  to  grow,  for  its  enriching  depends 
on  an  ever-increasing  variety  and  ever-widening  number  of 
sympathetic  contacts  with  life  through  experience.  The 
range  of  activities  must  go  out  from  the  church  into  the  com- 
munity. Experience  must  move  into  wider  circles  just  as  the 
life  of  the  child  goes  from  mother*s  arms  to  family  circle, 
to  school  group,  to  community,  to  city,  to  state,  to  nation,  and 
to  world,  nor  stops  there  if  it  develop  normally,  but  goes  out 
to  the  circles  that  cannot  be  measiu*ed  nor  described.  We 
would  do  well  to  consider  whether  such  a  movement  is  not 
normal  in  youth's  development,  whether  we  can  expect  a 
real  interest  in  the  far  until  the  nearer  is  known,  whether 
community  service  does  not  naturally,  as  an  experience, 
precede  and  lead  to  vital  interest  in  work  in  other  lands. 

Autonomy.  Wliatever  youth  does  in  the  expression  of 
the  ideal  life  and  as  part  of  spiritual  growth  it  must  do  for 
itself,  of  its  own  will.  Only  acts  rising  out  of  a  free  choice 
can  be  the  acts  of  personality.  Only  through  such  acts 
can  the  will  develop  and  choice  be  exercised  toward  finer 


THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  ACTIVITY  183 

discriminations.  Such  autonomy  youth  rightly  craves. 
Here  we  touch  the  principal  secret  of  the  success  of  "the 
young  people's  movement'*  of  the  end  of  the  nineteenth 
and  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century.  It  was  organized, 
largely  on  the  principle  of  autonomy;  young  people  con- 
ducted meetings,  elected  officers,  and  arranged  programmes. 
Are  we  to  abandon  this  advantage  because  we  are  confronted 
with  problems  in  its  exercise?  The  problems  essential  to 
the  autonomy  of  this  group  are  no  more  serious  than  those 
which  all  parents  have  to  face  in  guiding  their  children  to 
self-reliance,  in  adjusting  the  parent's  declining  authority 
to  the  youth's  rising  self-control.  They  are  no  more  serious 
than  those  which  rise  in  the  autonomy  of  the  women's  socie- 
ties and  their  relations  to  the  church.  We  may  as  well 
recognize  that  it  never  will  be  possible  to  encourage  young 
people  to  develop  self-control  and  group-control  without 
occasional  conflicts  with  our  own  programmes  and  plans. 

The  real  problem  is  not  essentially  a  matter  of  controls; 
it  does  not  rise  in  the  fact  that  there  is  a  separate  society 
for  young  people,  except  in  so  far  as  we  have  regarded  the 
matter  of  autonomy  as  a  possible  source  of  conflict  and  diffi- 
culty instead  of  seeing  its  tremendous  and  invaluable  educa- 
tional opportunity.  If  we  could  see,  even  in  the  experience 
of  adjusting  some  organization  details,  of  setthng  some 
difficulty,  not  the  bother  this  means  to  us  but  the  experience, 
the  life  training,  the  growth  of  powers  it  may  mean  to  the 
young,  we  would  bear  with  them  and  rejoice  with  them;  we 
would  refuse  to  sacrffice  their  education  to  our  ease. 

Grouy  organization  and  group  direction,  with  autonomy, 
are  essential  to  youth.  If  the  church  crowd  is  their  crowd 
and  if  their  crowd  has  the  chance  to  apply  its  energies  and 


184  YOUNG  PEOPLE 

at  the  same  time  realize  its  ideals  in  the  name  and  spirit  of 
religion,  it  means  for  them  all  personal,  spiritual  growth. 
That  group  "crowd"  and  no  other  is  their  native  spiritual 
habitat;  they  cannot  be  held  down  to  the  child  crowd  in  the 
Sunday  school  and  they  cannot  be  forced  up  into  the  adult 
crowd.  That  does  not  mean  that  they  will  be  marked  off 
from  these  other  two  groups  with  impassable  lines;  it  means 
that  in  this  group  they  will  find  themselves;  here  they  will 
really  have  the  sense  of  belonging.  Their  relations  to  the 
other  groups  will  be  normal;  they  will  help  in  work  for 
children  (though  willingness  to  do  this  will  not  develop  in 
young  men  until  toward  the  end  of  the  period  of  adolescence) 
and  they  will  aid  in  work  with  adults,  especially  in  com- 
munity service. 

PLANNING  NORMAL  RELATIONS 

The  problem  of  the  young  people  persists  because  we 
have  not  planned  our  work  in  view  of  the  simple  needs 
mentioned  above.  We  have  failed  to  see  the  central  im- 
portance of  action  in  the  development  of  the  spiritual  life 
and  the  importance  of  reality  in  action.  We  have  planned 
for  them  principally  three  things:  instruction,  meetings  for 
worship,  and  supervised  or  controlled  social  occasions. 
None  of  these  has  been  immediately  related  to  their  central 
need  of  action.  The  instruction  has  not  been  preparatory 
to  the  work  they  would  do  nor  usually  even  to  the  life 
which  they  would  live.  The  meetings  have  had  no  vital 
contact  with  work.  The  social  gatherings  have  had  value 
precisely  because  they  have  permitted  spontaneity  of  action 
and  so  developed  in  youth  their  own  controls. 

The  course  of  instruction  for  youth  must  be  determined 


PLANNING  NORMAL  RELATIONS  185 

by  the  life  they  face  and  the  work  they  can  do.  This  is 
the  period  of  interest  in  life's  actual  problems,  for  it  is  the 
period  when  they  are  first  seen,  when  they  are  fresh  and 
focal.  The  most  absorbing  topics  to  them  are  those  revolv- 
ing about  conduct  in  its  social  relations.  Left  to  themselves 
they  spend  a  surprising  amount  of  energy  in  discussing 
ethical  problems,  in  argument  over  the  rules  of  the  game  of 
life.  Nor  are  such  discussions  merely  academic;  they  rise 
out  of  experience  in  meeting  life's  diflSculties.  Therefore 
the  material  of  instruction  must  be  concrete,  using  specific 
problems,  presenting  definite  "cases"  and  permitting  free- 
dom of  discussion.*  The  best  approaches  are  through  the 
material  which  life  presents  in  current  events,  in  the  great 
questions  of  the  world,  through  presented  groups  of  "cases" 
of  moral  conflict  and  questioning  and  through  the  definite 
situations  that  appear  in  the  biographies  and  lives  of  men 
and  women  who  have  led  their  fellows. f  In  every  case  the 
need  of  action  must  be  remembered;  all  instruction  is  with  a 
view  to  its  realization  in  action.  The  courses  used  in  the 
school  of  the  church  should  be  chosen  with  this  in  mind. 

Evidently  a  word  is  necessary  on  the  relations  of  the  young 
people's  organization  to  the  Sunday  school;  but  only  a  very 
brief  treatment  is  possible.  The  young  people's  society  is 
simply  the  senior  department  of  the  church  school  organized 
for  different  purposes.  But  this  separate  organization  of 
the  same  group  leads  to  conflict  and  waste.     When  we  see 

*  See  a  discussion  of  this  point  of  view  on  the  lessons  in  chaps.  VIII 
and  IX  of  Efficiency  in  the  Sunday  School,  by  Henry  F.  Cope.  The 
method  is  exemplified  in  Johnson's  Problems  of  Boyhood.  See  also 
Forbush,  Young  People's  Problems. 

t  The  limits  of  this  work  do  not  permit  a  full  discussion  of  the  cur- 
riculum for  youth.  This  subject  has  been  treated  in  An  Outline  of  a 
Sunday  School  Curriculum,  by  G.  W.  Pease,  1904. 


186  YOUNG  PEOPLE 

that  it  is  the  same  group  and,  further,  that  the  purposes 
are  not  distinct  but  identical  the  dupHcation  of  organiza- 
tion becomes  even  less  desirable.  The  purposes  are  identical 
in  this:  the  senior  department  is  a  group  engaged  in  re- 
ligious education  by  instruction;  the  young  people's  society 
is  the  same  group  engaged  in  religious  education  by  activity. 
The  society  is  simply  the  school  engaged  in  giving  expression 
to  instruction.*  Why  not,  then,  bring  the  two  into  a  single 
organization?  Why  not  unify  this  common  educational 
work?  Both  could  become  the  Young  People's  Society  of 
the  Church  School.  This  organization  would  then  meet 
for  study  as  an  integral  part  of  the  school  and  it  would 
meet  in  such  other  ways  as  it  found  necessary  for  inspira- 
tion and  activities. 

If  it  is  asked  what  becomes  of  the  autonomy  of  the  young 
people's  organization  under  this  scheme,  the  answer  is  that 
this  is  to  be  preserved  in  the  church  school;  the  seniors 
ought  to  have  just  that  self-control  already  suggested  for 
young  people.  When  this  society  meets  for  instruction,  as 
a  department  of  the  school,  it  places  itself  under  the  general 
scheme  of  the  school;  but  it  should  have  all  powers  of  in- 
ternal government.  This  is  desirable  because  at  this  age 
youth  not  only  demands  but  imperatively  needs  freedom 
from  the  absolutism  which  is  still  commonly  exercised  over 
children.  If  this  department  of  the  school  has  self-govern- 
ment the  very  organization  becomes  educational  in  control, 
in  problem  solution,  in  initiative,  enterprise,  and  voluntary 
consecration  to  religious  purposes. 

*  For  details  of  plans  on  this  basis,  see  articles:  W.  H.  Boocock,  in 
Religious  Education,  vol.  V,  no.  2,  June,  1910,  p.  177;  J.  A.  Baber,  in 
Religious  Education,  vol.  VIII,  no.  5,  Dec,  1913,  p.  509. 


SPECIAL  GATHERINGS  187 

SPECIAL  GATHERINGS 

The  custom  of  special  vieetings  for  young  people  has  a 
value  which  must  not  be  slighted.  Failure  has  not  been  due 
to  the  fact  of  meetings  but  to  the  fact  of  meaningless  meet- 
ings. Meetings  for  the  development  and  expression  of  the 
religious  life  must  develop  and  express  that  life  in  terms 
consonant  with  youth's  stage  of  development.  This  is  the 
period  when  labor  is  prayer,  when  aspiration  expresses  itself 
in  definite  application.  To  be  meaningful,  that  is,  to  be  real, 
such  meetings  must  be  related  to  the  realities  of  life,  to  con- 
crete things  largely,  and  certainh^  to  the  life  of  action  and 
ideal  service.  Youth  soon  wearies  of  introspection;  it  be- 
comes morbid.  They  have  no  taste  for  the  testimony  meet- 
ing that  is  little  more  than  a  public  clinic  on  private  spiritual 
ills.  But  they  find  pleasure  and  inspiration  in  gathering  to 
plan  enterprises,  to  stimulate  one  another  to  effort.  Wit- 
ness the  college  crowd  at  the  rally  before  the  field-day !  A 
young  people's  meeting  should  have  most  of  its  time  taken 
in  accounts  of  work  attempted,  of  progress  made,  difficulties 
met,  and  new  needs  realized.  It  w^ill  become  a  conference 
on  enterprises  to  be  attempted.  With  the  actualities  in  the 
foreground  prayer  for  guidance  will  be  natural  and  spon- 
taneous and  the  joy  of  service  will  be  worship  in  itself.  Let 
all  devotional  forms  rise  out  of  such  an  atmosphere  and  they 
will  maintain  their  reality  and  power. 

Social  gatlierings  will  always  be  maintained  either  under 
the  encouragement  of  the  church  or  in  spite  of  its  attitude. 
But  the  social  gathering  is  not  a  device  of  the  church  to  get 
hold  of  youth;  it  is  the  normal  expression  of  youth's  grega- 
riousness.    The  very  problems  it  presents — as  to  forms  of 


188  YOUNG  PEOPLE 

amusement,  hours,  conditions — all  offer  just  the  opportuni- 
ties needed  for  discipline.  The  educational  value  lies  not  in 
regulations  imposed  but  through  controls  developed  by  con- 
sciousness of  responsibility  and  by  the  exercise  of  choice  and 
self-control.  Here  is  one  of  the  finest  educational  opportuni- 
ties. Provided  the  ideals  are  made  clear  and  vividly  attrac- 
tive, we  must  let  growing  lives  discover  and  develop  their 
powers  by  meeting  the  problems  of  method  in  social  life 
by  themselves.  The  objectionable  becomes  desirable  when 
it  is  forbidden;  it  is  usually  barred  when  freedom  of  con- 
trol gives  the  sense  of  social  responsibiHty.*  The  social 
meeting  is  also  a  splendid  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of 
altruism,  when  young  people  see  that  their  group  life  is 
something  they  may  share  with  others. 

The  place  of  young  people  in  the  church  depends  on  our 
willingness  to  furnish  opportunity  for  religion  to  express 
itself  in  terms  of  their  present  life  experiences.  The  church 
becomes  a  normal  society  and  a  happy  opportunity  for 
them  when  they  see  in  its  daily  programme  an  endeavor  to 
make  all  lives  full  and  rich  and  Godlike.  They  see  the 
church  seeking  to  make  this  world  realize  fully  the  divine 
plan  of  love  and  they  rejoice  to  have  full  participation  in 
such  a  programme.  To  enter  into  that  plan  is  to  move  into 
the  tide  where  life  grows  by  its  very  reach  after  the  divine 
ideal,  its  fellowship  with  God,  and  with  all  who  are  work- 
ing as  he  works. 

*  This  method  is  ably  discussed  in  an  article  by  Herbert  W.  Gates,  in 
Religious  Education  for  June,  1917. 


REFERENCES  189 


REFERENCES 

Erb,  Frank  O.,  Rise  and  Development  of  The  Young  People's  Move- 
ment (Univ.  of  Chicago,  1917). 

FoRBUSH,  Wm.  B.,  The  Coming  Generation  (Appleton,  1912), 

MoxcEY,  Mary  E.,  Girlhood  and  Character  (Abingdon,  1916). 

HoBEN,  Allan,  The  Minister  and  the  Boy  (Univ.  of  Chicago,  1912). 

Gates,  Herbert  W.,  articles  in  Religious  Education  for  February, 
1916,  and  June,  1917. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
THE  PHYSICAL 

What  has  tlie  church  to  do  with  the  programme  of  phys- 
ical education  ?  Has  it  any  responsibihty  for  teaching  and 
habituating  persons  in  the  healthy  and  efficient  physical 
life? 

It  must  recognize  as  a  working  principle  the  essential  unity 
of  tJie  person  it  seeks  to  educate,  that  he  is  all  one,  body, 
mind,  and  spirit.  It  must  recover  from  the  careless  and  mis- 
leading conception  of  man  as  a  being  of  tliree  natures  which 
are  temporarily  in  partnership.  We  have  assumed  that 
these  different  parts,  each  requiring  a  specialized  ministry, 
can  be  treated  in  independent  institutions;  if  the  family  will 
care  for  the  body  the  school  will  care  for  the  mind  and  the 
church  for  the  spirit.  Between  the  three  sections  of  this 
layer-cake  creation  we  have  inserted  separating  partitions 
to  keep  the  first  two  from  contact  with  the  last.  To  many 
it  is  most  important  that  the  life  of  thinking  should  not 
affect  the  life  of  the  spirit. 

But  the  dicta  of  modern  science  are  not  needed  to  prove 
that  trinitarianism  does  not  hold  good  in  the  human  per- 
sonality. Every-day  experience  reminds  any  observant  per-^ 
son  that  the  mind  functions  through  the  body  and  that  its 
activities  are  part  of  the  activities  of  the  body.  Thinking 
is  translated  into  conduct  through  the  muscles.  Ideas  are 
transmitted  through  physical  action  and  they  are  received 

190 


THE  PHYSICAL  191 

through  the  nerves.  The  clarity,  exactitude,  and  force  of 
every  mental  impression  depends  on  the  efficiency  of  the 
physical  machinery  for  its  reception.  So  also  is  the  body 
related  to  the  spiritual  life.  We  are  not  yet  disembodied 
spirits — though  many,  doubtless,  would  find  their  present 
religious  life  much  simpler  and  less  expensive  if  we  were. 
The  life  of  feeling,  willing,  and  all  that  reaches  beyond  the 
physical  mediates  through  the  physical.  Moral  judgment 
depends  on  physical  impressions  and  experiences.  The 
stimuli  of  what  is  called  this  higher  life  rise  through  the 
lower  levels;  "faith  cometh  by  hearing."  There  can  be 
no  concept  of  the  religious  life  of  a  person  cut  off  from  all 
physical  means  of  contact  with  others.  Then,  too,  physical 
levels  determine  spiritual  levels;  the  healthy  body  brings  a 
full  life  to  all  its  duties  and  its  joys.  Temptations  are  most 
easily  met  when  the  will  is  backed  by  normal  health.  Men 
yield  when  they  are  at  the  same  time  carrying  on  parallel 
struggles  with  sin  and  pain  or  fighting  with  a  lowered  re- 
sistance. 

The  simple  fact  is  that  when  we  think  with  care  of  the 
nature  of  man  and  the  processes  taking  place  in  him  it  is 
impossible  to  conceive  of  clear-cut  divisions  in  his  person- 
ality. The  man  whose  body  you  wound  with  a  pin  is  the 
same  man  whose  mind  answers  with  indignation  and  whose 
spiritual  life  manifests  itself  in  self-control  or  in  passion- 
swept  reaction.  No  mischievous  boy  has  ever  been  able  to 
excuse  the  bent  pin  in  the  deacon's  pew  on  the  ground  that 
it  was  not  an  assault  on  the  deacon's  dignity,  but  only  on 
his  body,  even  though  the  deacon  firmly  believed  in  the  tri- 
partite nature  of  man.  Always  we  are  dealing  with  a  whole 
person.     What  we  have  called  the  "natures"  are  only  the 


192  THE  PHYSICAL 

same  complex  called  a  person  functioning  in  different  ways. 
In  his  thinking  he  thinks  as  he  does  because  of  physical 
impressions  and  powers  and  because  of  religious  ideals.  In 
his  working  he  functions  physically  as  he  does  because  of 
mental  processes  and  spiritual  concepts.  And  what  is  his 
religious  life  but  the  quality,  color,  and  value  of  this  whole 
life  of  feeling,  knowing,  willing,  and  doing  ? 

THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  HUMAN  BODY 

Even  these  fragmentary  considerations  on  the  unity  of 
the  person  with  whom  the  church  deals  may  be  unnecessary, 
because,  while  there  remains  a  large  survival  of  mechanistic 
and  traditional  theory  on  the  subject,  yet  in  practice  people 
are  treated  usually  as  units  and  few  attempts  are  made  to 
segregate  their  minds  and  bodies.  But  in  religion  at  least 
we  tend  to  divide  the  natures  of  persons  according  to  degrees 
of  ultimate  value  and  degrees  of  immediate  and  functional 
importance.  Since  the  spiritual  life  is  the  ultimate  end  we 
assume  that  we  can  neglect  those  parts  which  are  regarded 
as  intermediate  or  which  are  not  distinctly  conceived  as 
spiritual.  We  no  longer  commonly  speak  of  the  "vile 
body,"  perhaps  because  it  is  improving  and  is  less  likely  to 
be  vile;  but  whenever  we  think  of  the  growth  of  character 
we  still  assume  that  the  body  is  of  the  least  importance.  In 
practice  we  act,  in  many  respects,  as  though  the  ministry  of 
the  church  was  to  disembodied  spirits. 

In  general  religion  has  held  four  different  attitudes  toward 
the  physical:  First:  The  ascetic,  holding  that  the  body  is 
the  foe  of  the  spirit,  a  drag  and  a  clod,  a  source  of  contamina- 
tion and  evil,  that  piety  is  to  be  promoted  by  the  discipline 
of  physical  pain  and  spiritual  freedom  found  by  freedom 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  HUMAN  BODY    193 

from  this  load  of  encumbering  flesh.  Second  :  Separationaly 
holding  that  the  spiritual  can  be  nurtured  independent  of 
the  body.  Third :  The  commercial,  practising  the  theory 
that  ministry  to  men's  lower  natures,  that  is,  their  bodily 
needs,  should  be  used  as  a  means  of  seducing  their  affections 
toward  the  church,  buying  allegiance  by  soup  and  sand- 
wiches. Fourth  :  Beneficial,  holding  that  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  church  in  every  possible  way  to  do  as  Jesus  did,  to  go 
about  doing  good  and  by  the  ministry  to  the  body  express 
love  for  mankind. 

But  surely  a  deeper  meaning  may  be  found  in  the  stories 
of  the  healing  ministry.  The  Saviour  of  men  was  not  only 
moved  with  compassion  for  the  immediate  hunger  and 
pain;  there  was  more  than  profound  sympathy  and  striking 
alleviation  there;  just  as  he  taught  a  new  social  order  he 
sought  to  show  some  of  the  essentials  of  its  realization. 
He  knew  that  if  men  were  to  live  in  a  kingdom  of  good-will 
and  joyous  service  they  must  bring  the  whole  of  them- 
selves to  it;  they  must  be  "made  whole";  the  members 
of  the  society  must  have  the  elementary  conditions  of 
righteousness,  rightness  within  themselves,  harmony  in  the 
working  machinery  of  life  through  which  they  were  to  func- 
tion in  the  new  social  order.  He  sought  an  ideal  society 
through  persons  who  should  live  ideal  lives  and  in  whom 
all  fitting  ideals  w^ere  being  realized.  Therefore  ministry  to 
the  body  was  an  essential  part  of  that  pattern  ministry. 
And  so  we  may  seek  a  fifth  attitude,  that  of  reverent  faith 
which  holds  that  the  body  expresses  the  will  of  God  and  may 
be  trained,  disciplined,  and  developed  to  do  his  will. 

The  church  will  be  concerned  with  the  physical  in  the  de- 
gree that  it  is  seen  as  an  essential  part  of  the  lives  of  persons 


194  THE  PHYSICAL 

and  therefore  an  essential  factor  in  any  programme  for  the 
growth  of  persons.  Indeed,  one  of  the  insistences  of  modern 
science  is  that  this  once-despised  physical  nature  is  funda- 
mental in  its  importance;  it  is  never  negligible;  it  is  often 
determinative.  It  is  the  machinery  through  which  all  teach- 
ing must  be  done,  through  which  all  habits  must  exercise 
themselves,  through  which  all  knowledge  must  translate 
itself.  To  all  truth  it  gives  color  and  force.  All  knowledge 
becomes  reality  only  as  it  finds  expression  through  the  physi- 
cal act.  It  is  the  immediate  enginery  of  this  whole  creature 
called  man.  What,  then,  is  the  ministry  of  the  church  to 
the  physical  life  ? 

THE  FIRST  RESPONSIBILITY 

The  ministry  of  the  church  to  the  physical  is,  in  many  of 
its  aspects  to-day,  secondary  rather  than  immediate.  Only 
a  few  churches  can  conduct  hospitals,  dispensaries,  and 
similar  agencies.  But  every  hospital  is  an  expression  both 
of  the  past  activity  and  the  present  sustaining  spirit  of  the 
church.  The  tendency  of  every  efficient  organization  for 
ideal  ends  is  to  develop  special  agencies  which  indepen- 
dently will  carry  forward  the  actual  practice  of  its  ideals. 
So  the  church  has  developed  very  largely  the  ministry  of 
healing.  The  specialized  forms  in  hospitals,  sanitation,  pub- 
lic hygiene,  and  the  teaching  of  health  are  commonly  not 
her  immediate  task,  though  they  are  her  grown-up  children 
to  be  fostered. 

Another  form  of  most  important  indirect  service  will  be 
that  of  the  education  of  public  opinion  to  support  every  right 
effort  for  health  and  physical  well-being.  This  will  be  car- 
ried on  through  the  advocacy  of  standards  of  physical  liv- 


THE  FIRST  RESPONSIBILITY  195 

ing,  through  the  elevation  of  ideals  of  controls  of  conduct, 
the  mastery  of  the  body  and  its  direction  in  ideal  service. 
But  the  fact  that  such  service  is  indirect  does  not  mean  that 
it  should  be  indefinite.  This  is  not  a  general  matter  about 
which  we  can  afford  to  feel  carelessly  and  think  loosely.  It 
is  not  an  indifferent  question  as  to  what  the  churches  shall 
do  or  what  the  community  shall  do  about  physical  well- 
being.  We  need  clear  thinking  on  health.  We  need  definite 
campaigns  which  without  losing  sight  of  spiritual  ends  shall 
insist  on  the  immediate  importance  of  the  physical.  The 
church  may  give  a  worthy  spiritual  motive  to  all  endeavors 
for  community  health  and  personal  vigor. 

The  church  will  co-operate  with  every  effort  for  education 
as  to  health  and  physical  well-being.  It  will  know  what 
is  being  done  through  other  agencies.  It  will  co-ordinate 
its  own  plans  of  instruction  to  other  community  plans.  It 
will  be  able  to  judge  of  the  value  of  all  such  work  by  a 
thorough  understanding  of  its  principles  and  methods.  It 
will  carry  its  own  share  of  this  work.  Its  own  courses  of  in- 
struction will  not  lose  sight  of  the  immediate  importance  of 
the  physical.  It  will  accept  its  peculiar  responsibility  for 
certain  aspects  of  instruction.  Those  special  needs  of  youth 
which  appear  with  the  period  of  adolescence  cannot  be  met 
apart  from  the  motives  and  ideals  of  religion.  Even  the 
most  accurate  information  fails  without  spiritual  ideals 
and  feelings  of  reverence.  This  is  the  most  serious  deficiency 
in  what  is  called  "sex  education."  The  young  do  need  the 
facts;  the  facts  should  be  scientific;  but  besides  the  facts 
they  need  the  motives  and  ideals.* 

*See  Richard  C.  Cabot,  What  Men  Live  By  (Houghton,  Mifilin, 
1916). 


196  THE  PHYSICAL 


INSTRUCTION  ON  SEX 

The  church  cannot  dodge  this  problem.  It  cannot  be 
delegated  wholly  to  other  agencies.  It  will  help  us  in  con- 
sidering the  problem  to  realize  that  this  much-discussed 
duty  is  simply  a  part  of  the  whole  duty  of  teaching  and  train- 
ing in  the  laws  of  health.  It  never  can  be  properly  treated 
as  a  thing  apart.  It  is  an  essential  part  of  the  whole  of  per- 
sonal and  social  duty.  The  primary  responsibility  lies  with 
the  family.  This  is  so  because  the  training  must  begin  be- 
'fore  the  years  of  schooling.  Some  of  the  highest  motives 
for  purity  of  living  are  exemplified  in  family  life.  Parents,  by 
the  continuity  and  informality  of  their  relations  to  children, 
have  the  best  and  most  potent  opportunities  for  teaching.* 

But  few  parents  are  prepared  for  these  duties.  They 
need  preparation  which  goes  beyond  the  facts  to  be  taught; 
they  need  to  understand  the  spiritual  significance  of  the 
instruction  and  training  they  are  to  give.  For  the  spiritual 
interpretation  of  all  that  has  to  do  with  the  development  of 
lives  the  church  is  responsible.  Therefore  the  church  must 
train  parents  for  this  task.  As  a  part  of  its  duty  toward  the 
religious  life  of  the  family,  through  its  classes  for  parents,  it 
will  face  this  serious  problem  of  the  home.  It  will  give  to 
parents  in  regular  courses  of  study  and  through  conferences 
and  discussions  the  preparation  they  need. 

The  instruction  of  the  young  in  the  church  will  be  in- 
cidental, as  a  rule.  It  will  come  as  a  part  of  the  lessons  on 
Christian  living,  on  social  duty,  on  personal  righteousness. 
Its  greatest  values  will  rise  out  of  the  influence  of  teachers 

*  See  the  author's  Religious  Edttcation  in  the  Family  (Univ.  of  Chi- 
cago Press,  1915). 


DETERMINING  THE  SOIL  OF  THE  SOUL    197 

and  leaders.  In  every  church  there  are  some  men  and  women 
who,  through  the  medium  of  friendship,  can  advise  boys  and 
girls  individually.  They  can,  under  the  direction  or  sugges- 
tion of  pastor,  superintendent,  or  director,  watch  for  the 
evidences  of  critical  needs.  The  real  cure  for  the  "social 
evil"  is  a  society  of  persons  who  love  purity  passionately, 
who  honor  their  fellows  and  love  righteousness. 

The  church  has  an  educational  responsibility  for  the  social 
conditions  which  permit  and  foster  social  impurity.  It  must 
teach  on  this  subject  with  no  uncertain  sound.  It  must 
strengthen  the  good  and  denounce  the  evil.  It  must  teach 
by  its  freedom  from  all  alliance  with  evil.  It  cannot  preach 
health  if  it  shields  those  who  defend  vice  or  those  who  fatten 
on  disease  in  any  form. 

DETERMINING  THE  SOIL  OF  THE  SOUL 

The  ultimate  stake  of  the  church  in  the  souls  of  men  and 
in  a  spiritual  society  calls  for  an  immediate  aim  not  less 
than  this:  physical  conditions  of  living  which  make  for  the 
higher  life,  a  world  fit  for  the  family  of  God  to  live  in.  That 
lies  back  of  our  progranmies  for  physical  things.  Clean 
roads,  sewers,  public  hygiene,  decent  working  conditions 
and  hours,  the  elimination  of  the  saloon  and  of  every  moral 
pest-house,  all  are  definitely  material  things;  but  they  are 
parts  of  the  conditions  in  which  the  spiritual  being  called 
man  lives.  They  constitute  the  soil  and  environment  of 
lives.  They  are  the  silent  educators.  The  church  opposes 
dirt  and  indecency,  not  because  she  likes  respectability, 
not  because  they  offend  her  aesthetic  taste,  but  because  they 
function  through  the  physical  to  delay  and  defeat  her  pro- 
gramme of  a  Godlike  society. 


198  THE  PHYSICAL 

Does  concern  for  the  physical  tend  to  destroy  the  sense 
of  the  spiritual?  Evidently  the  writers  of  the  Gospels  did 
not  think  so.  They  reveal  the  spiritual  Jesus  through  his 
concern  for  humanity's  immediate  needs.  He  saw  all  the 
immediate  physical  in  the  light  of  the  ultimate  spiritual. 
The  reality  of  the  spiritual  depends  on  the  fulness  of  all 
the  life.  The  man  who  would  do  God's  work  in  this  world 
will  need  all  the  strength  he  can  have;  he  will  need  muscles 
and  blood  and  physical  habituations  to  carry  their  full 
load.*    He  must  be  a  full  man  in  every  direction. 

TRAINING  FOR  BOYS  AND  GIRLS 

Has  the  church  any  responsibility  for  the  training  of  the 
bodies  of  its  youth  and  its  boys  and  girls?  Experience  in 
the  work  of  the  church  school  soon  brings  one  to  face  this 
problem.  All  serious  plans  for  the  welfare  of  youth  must 
meet  it.  If  young  people  are  to  grow  as  Christian  persons 
they  must  grow  in  all  respects;  the  body  must  be  trained, 
educated  in  the  spirit  of  Jesus,  to  become  the  servant  and 
instrument  of  the  will  of  God.  Nor  does  this  physical 
work  minister  to  the  body  alone;  it  develops  the  whole 
person  by  the  disciplines  and  joys  of  the  body.  It  seeks  to 
insure  controls  of  conduct,  love  of  noble  ideals,  willing  ser- 
vice, social  co-operation,  and  the  development  of  the  whole 
self  on  a  high  level. 

There  can  be  no  other  valid  reason  for  any  church  planning 
for  physical  training.  It  is  true  that  other  reasons  are 
operative,  but  they  are  sure  to  lead  to  disappointment. 
Many,   consciously  or  unconsciously,   argue  in  this  way: 

*  See  a  stimulating  article,  by  Dr.  George  ,J.  Fisher,  in  Education  and 
National  Character ^  1908,  p.  99  (Religious  Education  Association). 


TRAINING  FOR  BOYS  AND  GIRLS  199 

boys  and  girls  will  play;  they  cannot  be  cured  of  it;  the 
boys,  at  least,  love  sports  and  athletic  contests;  if  we  yield 
to  their  inclinations  and  provide  the  facilities  for  gymnastic 
and  athletic  work  we  may  get  hold  of  them  and  get  them 
interested  in  the  work.  Anaesthetize  them  by  athletics 
and  then  operate  on  them  for  impiety.  To  put  it  a  little 
more  precisely,  chiu^ches  bait  the  membership  hook  with  a 
gymnasium.  But  does  any  fish  stay  on  the  hook  of  his  own 
free  will  ?  Our  modern  young  fish  are  wise  and  wary;  if  you 
are  only  baiting  a  hook  they  will  nibble  away  at  the  bait  for 
a  while;  they  will  get  as  far  as  the  gymnasium  but  no  further; 
in  their  own  phrase,  they  will  go  "fifty-fifty"  with  you; 
you  keep  the  hook  and  they  keep  the  bait. 

A  study  of  the  gymnasium  features  in  churches  in  many 
States  presents  evidence  that  the  most  common  cause  of 
either  success  or  failure  lies  in  the  underlying  operative  rea- 
son for  existence.  Play  facilities,  athletics,  recreational  or 
what  you  will — the  big  question  is :  Why  do  you  have  them  ? 
Unless  they  are  instituted  as  essential  to  the  real  programme 
of  the  church  in  developing  youth  toward  Godlikeness  it 
were  better  to  leave  the  work  of  amusing  the  young  to  others. 
Use  them  as  a  bait  and  the  expected  process  is  reversed; 
the  fish  pulls  the  rod  into  the  stream. 

This  is  a  matter  of  interest  to  the  small  church  as  truly 
as  to  the  large;  both  deal  with  youth  of  the  same  period 
and  the  same  inclinations  and  needs;  both  have  the  same 
purpose  and  programme.  The  physical  programme  of  the 
educational  work  of  a  church  does  not  grow  out  of  the  con- 
gested city  life  alone;  in  fact,  to-day  the  up-to-date  city  is 
likely  to  provide  better  facilities  for  physical  training,  at 
least  as  to  the  formal  kind,  than  the  open  country.    The 


200  THE  PHYSICAL 

problem  belongs  to  the  church  everywhere  because  of  its 
work  of  leading  whole  lives  God  ward.  If  the  direction  and 
development  of  play,  the  training  of  the  body,  the  experience 
of  happy  social  contacts  and  co-operation  in  sports  and 
games,  the  development  of  a  sound,  efficient  body  that 
obeys  the  will  and  serves  ideal  ends  are  part  of  the  making 
of  a  whole  man,  the  church  can  afford  neither  to  ignore 
the  possibilities  nor  to  treat  the  process  as  a  device  to  some 
other  end. 

REFERENCES 

King,  Henry  C,  Rational  Living  (Macmillan,  1908). 
James,  William,  Talks  on  Psychology,  Talk  No.  1  (Henry  Holt,  1904). 
BiGELOW,    Maurice,    Sex   Education    (Macmillan,    1916).     See   also 
many  papers  in  Social  Hygiene. 


CHAPTER  XVII 
THE  ATHLETIC  PROBLEM 

What  is  the  direct  responsibility  of  the  church  for  pro- 
viding the  means  of  physical  education?  The  answer  for 
each  church  will  depend  on  its  local  conditions.  As  a 
general  principle  it  may  be  said  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
church  to  see  that  everywhere  every  provision  is  made 
for  the  full  development  of  the  religious  life  and  that  where 
no  other  agency  is  capable  of  making  any  necessary  special 
provision  the  church  will  make  it  herself.  This  is  the  prin- 
ciple upon  which  all  her  work  has  been  done.  Her  spiritual 
responsibility  led  her  to  establish  and  conduct  hospitals 
when  society  was  not  ready  to  do  the  work  independently. 
It  led  her  to  maintain  dispensaries,  to  conduct  schools,  and 
to  operate  relief  agencies.  The  primary  responsibility  is 
to  see  that  the  work  is  done,  a  responsibility  that  can  only 
be  discharged  in  some  circumstances  by  doing  it. 

There  is  one  other  important  consideration  in  favor  of  the 
maintenance  of  facilities  for  athletic  work  in  the  church. 
Inasmuch  as  physical  training  finds  its  highest  potentiality 
in  the  direction  of  the  free  activities  of  the  young  in  play 
and  recreation  the  church  as  a  society  affords  the  best  habit- 
ual social  environment  for  them.  Play,  the  idealization  of 
the  child's  experience,  should  be  associated  with  the  ideal 
institutions.  To  find  the  play  life  stimulated  throughout 
childhood  in  association  with  the  church  is  to  acquire  the 
habit  of  playing  the  game  of  life  in  the  church.     This  reason 

201 


202  THE  ATHLETIC  PROBLEM 

goes  very  deep;  it  is  more  than  a  matter  of  associating  habits. 
The  simple  fact  is  that  the  higher  Hfe  and  the  Hfe  of  play  and 
physical  development  are  inseparable.  No  clear-cut  line 
dividing  functions  can  be  made  so  that  we  can  say  this  be- 
longs to  the  spiritual  institution  and  that  to  the  social  or 
the  educational.  To  deal  with  a  whole  life  it  is  necessary 
to  deal  with  it  physically.  The  family  offers  an  illuminat- 
ing parallel;  its  all-around  responsibility  leads  it  to  furnish 
many  facilities  of  play  and  physical  culture  within  its  premi- 
ses and  also  to  exercise  immediate  care  and  guidance  over 
all  the  larger  fields  outside. 

THROUGH  ORGANIZATIONS 

The  practical  work  of  a  church  reveals  the  impossibility 
of  so  closely  defining  the  field  of  work  on  the  principle  of 
specialization  as  to  exclude  provision  for  physical  develop- 
ment. The  work  of  the  Boy  Scouts  and  the  Camp  Fire 
Girls  has  developed  in  the  churches;  it  is  at  home  there 
and  succeeds  there  best.  This  is  because  both  are  excellent 
examples  of  the  interweaving  of  physical  culture  with  moral 
and  spiritual  training.  To  turn  these  organizations  out  and 
to  commit  them  to  the  schools  or  to  other  agencies  because 
they  are  not  limited  to  religious  activities  would  be  to  close 
a  thousand  avenues  of  free  access  to  the  lives  of  boys  and 
girls.  In  many  respects  they  constitute  the  types  of  physical 
emphasis  and  culture  which  the  churches  can  most  naturally 
and  helpfully  conduct.  They  require  no  elaborate  mechan- 
isms, physical  or  otherwise,  and  no  special  structure  or 
apparatus.  One  advantage  of  this  is  that  they  impose  on 
the  young  no  consciousness  of  formal  and  elaborate  efforts 
on  their  behalf.     They  are  built,  with  commendable  insight 


THROUGH  ORGANIZATIONS  203 

and  care,  on  interests  native  to  the  young  and  they  are 
directed  toward  helpful  habits.  Moreover,  they  have  the 
advantage  of  offering  a  programme  of  greatly  varied  and 
relatively  simple  forms  of  development. 

Some  who  do  not  know  the  spirit  of  the  organization  sup- 
pose that  the  Boy  Scouts  is  simply  a  military  organization 
giving  training  in  "soldiering."  That  is  not  true  of  "The 
Boys  Scouts  of  America."  It  is  well  to  know  that  there 
are,  or  were,  two  organizations,  one  of  which — happily  now 
uncovered  and  generally  rejected — bore  all  the  appearances 
of  an  advertising  scheme  to  make  a  new  military  arm. 
The  drill  and  discipline  of  the  Scouts  has  no  military  color 
aside  from  the  uniform.  Its  valuable  feature  of  first  aid  to 
the  injured  is  designed  for  all  kinds  of  emergencies.  Its 
organized  discipline  is  one  of  the  things  most  needed  by  our 
boys  to-day;  it  would  tend  to  make  them  highly  valuable 
in  any  national  need.  But  it  is  not  for  fighting  purposes; 
it  is  scarcely  possible  to  imagine  its  being  so  used.  Before 
he  becomes  a  Scout  a  boy  must  promise  as  follows,  in  "  The 
Scout  Oath":  "On  my  honor  I  will  do  my  best:  1.  To  do 
my  duty  to  God  and  my  country  and  to  obey  the  Scout  law. 
2.  To  help  other  people  at  all  times.  3.  To  keep  myself 
physically  strong,  mentally  aw^ake,  and  morally  straight." 
The  Scout  law*  gives  twelve  practicable,  high  ideals. 

The  value  of  the  above  plans  for  boys  and  girlsf  lies  in 
the  manner  in  which  they  enlist  their  activities  on  many 

*  Given  in  full  in  The  Official  Handbook  and  in  The  Boy  Scout  Movement 
Applied  by  the  Church,  Richardson  and  Loomis,  p.  47  (Scribners,  1915). 

t  Full  information  may  be  secured  from  The  Boy  Scouts  of  America, 
200  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York;  The  Camp  Fire  Girls,  461  Fourth  Ave- 
nue, New  York.  See,  on  the  Scouts,  Boy  Scout  Movement  Applied  by 
the  Church,  N.  E.  Richardson  and  O.  E.  Loomis  (Scribners,  1915). 
See  F.  D.  Elmer,  in  Religious  Education  for  August,  1915,  p.  364. 


204  THE  ATHLETIC  PROBLEI^I 

sides  and  guide  them  through  the  free  play  of  physical  powers 
into  desirable  habits  and  usefulness.  But  these  two  forms 
will  not  meet  all  needs;  there  will  be  many  boys  especially 
who  are  not  attracted  by  the  types  of  work  offered  in  clubs, 
societies,  and  athletic  organizations. 

BIBLE-CLASS  ATHLETIC   LEAGUES 

An  important  part  of  the  physical  work  in  many  churches 
is  done  through  the  bible-class  athletic  leagues  or  the  church- 
school  leagues.  In  Chicago  over  two  hundred  churches  are 
in  a  federated  athletic  organization  through  their  schools. 
Such  organizations  exist  in  about  one  hundred  and  forty 
different  cities  in  the  United  States.*  They  arrange  match 
games  and  are  supposed  to  supervise  the  standards  of  play- 
ing and  to  maintain  amateur  rules.  The  benefits  reach 
boys  and  young  men.  The  possibilities  of  usefulness  are 
large.  There  are  some  dangers,  however;  the  principal  one 
is  that  the  teams  shall  be  permitted  to  work  without  proper 
supervision,  no  one  caring  where  or  when  or  how  they  play. 
No  church  should  attempt  this  w^ork  unless  it  can  secure  the 
voluntary  services  of  a  man  of  experience  in  this  field  who 
will  devote  himself  to  the  supervision  of  the  teams,  the 
standardization  of  their  work,  and  the  maintenance  of 
ethical  standards  in  play.  Another  danger  is  that  there 
shall  be  no  real  relation  of  this  work  to  the  programme  of 
the  church.  This  does  not  mean  athletics  for  the  sake  of 
the  church,  but  the  spirit  and  life  of  the  church  stimulating 
and  directing  this  work  so  that  the  young  men  normally 
think  of  their  life  of  play  as  a  part  of  the  life  of  the  church. 

*  Report  of  Dr.  F.  J.  Fisher  at  Federal  Council  of  Churches,  1916,  and 
article  by  Dr.  Fisher  describing  beginnings  of  the  Brooklyn  League,  in 
The  Aims  of  Religious  Education,  p.  449  (1905). 


"CHRISTIAN  ASSOCIATIONS"  205 

Such  relationships  come  through  the  constantly  maintained 
interest  of  the  leaders  in  the  church  and  through  the  sup- 
port which  the  church  gives  the  league.  There  are  pos- 
sibilities of  the  development  of  similar  work  for  girls. 


In  many  communities  the  more  formal  aspects  of  physical 
training  can  be  best  conducted  by  the  "Christian  Associa- 
tion." It  is  evidently  wasteful  to  multiply  plants  for  this 
work.  If  the  churches  could  see  their  opportunity  to  accom- 
plish their  largest  work  unitedly  the  Association  would  be- 
come the  natural  agency  through  which  many  of  their  activ- 
ities would  clear.  We  need  something  wider  than  a  church 
programme  of  physical  training;  we  need  community 
programmes  promoted  by  all  the  churches  and  effected 
through  some  common  representative  agencysuch  as  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  or  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  Of  course  the  Associations 
have  a  work  much  wider  than  the  physical,  but  this  work 
they  do  remarkably  well,  and  the  churches  would  do  well  to 
use  their  plants  and  their  experts.  If  it  be  objected  that 
this  would  tend  to  disassociate  men  from  the  churches,  that 
it  runs  contrary  to  the  argument  advanced  above  concern- 
ing the  advantages  of  play  in  the  church,  it  may  be  sug- 
gested that  the  remedy  lies  in  identifying  the  associations 
with  the  churches.  When  a  man  enters  a  Y.  M.  C.  A.  he 
must  feel  that  he  enters  the  churches  of  the  community  in 
their  associated  capacity.  It  is  not  possible  here  to  study 
in  detail  all  the  possible  plans,*  and  we  can  turn  only  to 
one  particular  aspect  of  the  problem. 

*  Valuable  suggestions  on  provisions  for  the  physical  needs  through 
the  church  are  found  in  F.  J.  Milnes's  The  Church  and  the  Young  Man's 
Game  (Doran,  1916). 


206  THE  ATHLETIC  PROBLEM 

THE  GYMNASIUM  QUESTION 

There  will  still  remain  many  places  in  which  the  church 
must  make  special  provision  for  its  own  young  people.  Then 
the  sine  qua  non  is  a  programme  and  not  some  advertised 
or  popular  specific.  Specifics  are  bought;  programmes 
grow.  A  "physical  plant"  may  only  be  a  dead  tree  cum- 
bering the  ground.  The  most  common  delusion  is  that  a 
fine  gymnasium  crowded  with  shining  apparatus — dumb- 
bells, bars,  ladders,  swings,  etc.,  etc. — will  "turn  the  trick." 
And,  usually,  all  that  splendid  outfit  spells  an  expense  so 
heavy  that  the  church  gives  up  almost  before  it  begins. 

Even  in  the  formal  gymnasium  the  present  tendency  is 
away  from  apparatus  and  toward  freedom  for  games  and 
play.  Nearly  every  church  can  get  all  the  best  work  that 
is  now  being  done  in  physical  training  outside  of  any  special 
building  right  in  its  back  lot,  on  a  playing-ground,  or,  in 
bad  weather,  in  a  vacant  hall.  Get  hold  of  that  young 
man  or  that  young  woman  who  has  had  some  of  this  work 
and  give  them  a  chance  to  do  the  very  thing  they  would  like 
to  do  in  guiding  boys  and  girls  in  physical  development. 

But  the  formal  training  is  a  very  small  part  of  the  educa- 
tional programme  in  this  field.  The  larger  task  is  to  gather 
up,  encourage,  and  direct  the  spontaneous  recreational  and 
play  life.  For  young  people,  playing  together  is  learning  to 
live  together.  At  present  they  live  more  really  in  this 
area  of  experience  than  in  any  other.  We  would  make  that 
living  a  part  of  the  training  in  living  as  religious  persons. 
To  this  end  we  must  know  how  play  makes  for  character, 
we  must  seek  to  organize  and  direct  play  in  healthful,  happy 
ways,  simply  dropping  out  the  debasing  and  developing  the 


THE  GYMNASIUM  QUESTION  207 

helpful.  To  accomplish  such  an  end  the  church  needs  more 
than  sermons  on  ^^questionable  amusements"  and  more 
than  a  sporadic  Bible-class  baseball  team;  it  needs  a  group 
of  men  and  women  who  give  themselves  to  seeing  that  all 
the  boys  and  girls  have  the  chance  to  play,  have  time  and 
places,  and  have  informal  direction  in  forms  of  play  that 
develop  body  and  character.  That  involves,  not  so  much 
plant  and  machinery  as  planning  and  people. 

Some  time  ago  there  w^as  instituted  in  Canada,  princi- 
pally through  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  a  series  of  "Standard  Tests" 
for  boys.  The  scheme  provided  for  an  analysis  of  the  boy's 
interests  and  needs  and  for  an  examination  into  his  experi- 
ence, achievements,  and  progress  in  regard  to  such  matters 
as  physical  development,  mental  training  and  abilities, 
general  knowledge,  service,  and  social  usefulness.  It  pro- 
vided for  an  examination  into  each  boy's  personal  develop- 
ment so  that  his  needs  could  be  met  and  his  rate  of  develop- 
ment determined.  Similar  plans  are  being  prepared  for  both 
boys  and  girls  in  the  United  States.*  While  it  is  not  possible 
to  institute  uniform  standards  and  tests  so  that  each  person 
could  be  exactly  graded,  it  is  worth  while  to  attempt  to 
secure  every  possible  item  of  exact  information  on  the  needs 
and  the  life  development  of  growing  persons.  And  every 
church  ought  to  have,  as  part  of  its  school  machinery, 
facilities  to  secure  just  such  information  and  to  keep  it 
corrected,  as  persons  develop,  and  made  a  part  of  the  data 
upon  which  work  with  individuals  can  be  based. 

Here,  then,  is  a  section  of  church  service  in  which  there 
has  been  a  large  amount  of  sporadic  activity,  usually  lack- 

*  See  "Standard  Efficiency  Tests  for  Boys,"  by  E.  C.  Foster,  in  Re- 
ligious Educatioriy  vol.  XII,  no.  1,  p.  36,  February,  1917. 


208  THE  ATHLETIC  PROBLEM 

ing  in  programme  and  correlation.  If  it  can  be  seen  that 
physical  training  is  a  part  of  the  general  programme  of  re- 
ligious nurture,  then  might  we  not  find  a  place  for  it  as 
definitely  as  we  now  have  a  place  for  instruction  in  religion 
through  the  Sunday  school  or  church  school?  It  will  find 
its  place,  first,  through  the  establishment  of  the  necessary 
organization  for  leadership.  In  the  church  there  will  be  a 
group  of  capable  persons  directly  charged  with  responsibility 
to  see  that  provision  is  made  so  that  the  young  people  of  the 
community  grow  in  both  wisdom  and  stature.  That  pro- 
vision may  be  made  in  the  public  schools,  through  voluntary 
agencies  like  Christian  associations,  through  park  boards, 
recreation  bodies,  or  whatever  may  be  most  efiicient  for  this 
purpose.  Or  it  may  be  necessary  for  churches  to  make  the 
provision  as  a  part  of  their  own  plants.  The  care  of  the 
church  committee  or  board  is  simply  to  see  that  it  is  done, 
and  done  rightly. 

REFERENCES 

Richardson  and  Loomis,   The  Boy  Scout  Movement  Applied  by  the 

Church  (Scribners,  1915). 
Edwards,  R.  H.,  Christianity  and  Amusements,  chap.  V  (Association 

Press,  1915). 
Atkinson,  Henry  A.,  The  Church  and  the  People's  Play  (Pilgrim  Press, 

1915). 
Young,  H.  P.,  Character  Through  Recreation  (American  Sunday  School 

Union,  1915). 


CHAPTER   XVIII 
THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  FAMILY 

The  church  is  not  a  wholly  independent  and  autonomous 
social  institution;  its  life  is  dependent  on  other  groups  and 
its  future  is  bound  up  with  theirs.  Its  relation  to  the  life 
of  the  family  is  peculiarly  close.  It  always  has  been  so. 
Churches  are,  to  a  very  large  degree,  made  up  of  family 
units.  No  matter  how  highly  the  particular  church  may 
foster  individualism,  and  no  matter  how  fully  society  may 
afford  freedom  for  each  person  to  relate  himself,  as  he  may 
choose,  to  ecclesiastical  organizations,  the  fact  remains  that 
families  are  quite  likely  to  maintain  unity  in  such  rela- 
tions. The  child  grows  up  discovering  groups  and  rejoic- 
ing in  group  loyalties.  Long  before  he  has  any  concept  of 
what  the  family  "ism"  means  he  boasts  of  being  a  "Meth- 
odist" or  a  "Baptist."  He  moves  with  the  family  group  in 
their  loyalties.  The  churches  are  dependent  in  no  small 
degree  on  this  group  movement  of  families. 

Some  might  suggest  that  identity  with  a  church  on  the 
basis  of  family  tradition  and  the  influence  of  group  loyalties 
was  not  a  sufficient  nor  an  intelligent  basis.  But,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  operation  of  loyalties  is  one  of  the  most 
important  forces  in  the  development  of  religious  character. 
Church  membership  is  much  more  than  an  outward  sign  of 
an  inner  intellectual  assent  to  the  doctrines  of  the  church; 
it  is  a  social  expression  of  unity  with  a  group,  of  "belonging" 
to  those  who  have  a  common  aim.    The  power  of  the 

209 


210         THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  FAMILY 

church  to  develop  lives  is  dependent  on  its  power  to  de- 
velop loyalties.  liOyalty  to  an  ideal  group  is  one  of  the  best 
of  these.  The  church  is  eflficient  in  the  measure  that  it  de- 
velops the  emotions  and  group  idealisms  of  joy  and  determi- 
nation, of  sacrifice  and  effort  for  the  things  for  which  the 
group  stands.  Family  life  to  the  child  means  so  much  more 
than  food  and  shelter;  it  means  a  unity  of  thought,  ideals, 
and  feelings  to  which  he  belongs.  In  this  little  society  the 
principle  of  loyalty  works  with  tremendous  effectiveness. 
Now,  if  the  impetus  of  the  principle  in  the  smaller  group  is 
carried  over  to  the  larger  one  there  is  a  decided  advantage. 
We  may  preserve  the  best  of  individualism  and  still  have 
each  person  in  the  church  bringing  to  his  allegiance  the  added 
sense  of  the  family  allegiance. 

STRENGTHENING  THE  CHURCH 

The  church  needs  the  family  as  an  aid,  an  extension  of  her 
occasional  ministry  into  a  continuous  one.  Under  the  very 
best  conditions  the  church  reaches  lives  only  occasionally, 
for  a  few  hours  of  each  week,  while  the  family  is  in  most  in- 
timate contact  with  them  for  much  longer  periods.  In 
points  of  primacy,  continuity,  normality,  tradition,  and  im- 
mediacy the  family  has  the  advantage  over  every  other 
educational  agency.*  In  fact,  none  of  them  can  accomplish 
its  work  unless  it  have,  in  some  measure,  the  co-operation  of 
the  family.  This  is  peculiarly  true  of  the  work  of  the  church. 
It  must  depend  principally  on  the  agency  which  primarily 
influences  character,  which  most  directly  and  constantly 
affects  persons  as  persons. 

*See  chaps.  I  to  III  of  Religious  Education  in  the  Family,  Cope 
(Univ.  of  Chicago  Press,  1915). 


TO  SAVE  THE  FAMILY  211 

The  problem  of  the  church,  traced  down  to  its  ends,  is 
almost  sure  to  lead  us  to  the  family.  All  social  problems  at 
root  are  personal  problems.  The  new  world  waits  for  new 
people.  The  personal  agencies — those  which  have  most  to 
do  with  developing  persons — are  the  ones  to  which  society 
must  look  for  the  development  of  character.  The  church 
cannot  carry  forward  her  work  unless  she  has  the  real  and 
efficient  co-operation  of  the  family.  Here  is  one  instance  in 
which  the  programme  of  the  church  cannot  be  considered 
apart  from  the  power  of  other  social  organizations. 

In  order  that  her  own  work  in  religious  education  may  go 
forward,  w^hat  can  the  church  do  to  conserve  the  religious 
values  and  increase  the  religious  efficiency  of  the  family? 

TO  SAVE  THE  FAJ^ULY 

The  church  may  foster  the  essential  purpose  of  the  family, 
the  purpose  which  the  family  has  in  common  with  the  church. 
As  an  institution  of  the  spirit  its  first  rights  are  those  of 
freedom  and  opportunity  for  the  spiritual  life.  The  church 
may  stimulate  public  opinion  to  protect  the  rights  of  the 
family.  First  comes  its  right  to  life,  that  is,  to  the  life  that 
is  more  than  toiling  and  eating  and  sleeping.  The  churches 
must  co-operate  to  protect  the  family  from  being  no  more 
than  an  economic  factor,  a  part  of  the  present  producing 
machinery,  a  mere  thing  that  exists  for  things.  Home  con- 
ditions must  be  improved,  for  they  sadly  need  improve- 
ment as  to  the  simple  things  of  space,  light,  comfort,  and 
sanitation.  We  must  elevate  all  low  standards  of  condi- 
tions of  living,  since  these  are  factors  in  determining  char- 
acter. But  the  main  conflict  will  be  against  any  inter- 
pretation of  the  family  in  terms  of  things,  even  of  the  good 


212    THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  FAMILY 

things  of  the  home  Hfe,  and  an  insistence  that  the  family 
does  not  have  Its  rights  until  its  people  have  in  it  the  chance 
to  know  one  another,  to  think  together,  to  rejoice  together 
and  grow  as  persons,  as  spirits. 

We  cannot  stop  when  every  man  has  the  right  to  a  roof 
and  a  bed  and  fair  food;  he  must  have  more,  the  leisure  to 
live,  to  find  himself,  to  enter  into  the  life  of  the  family,  to 
read  and  talk  and  play  with  them.  The  church  must  lead 
in  shaping  a  public  opinion  that  insists  on  the  right  of  the 
family  to  be  the  primary  institution  of  personality,  to  test 
it  by  its  efficiency  in  developing  persons.  And  in  order  that 
this,  Its  chief  function,  may  be  developed,  we  must  protect 
its  economic  rights  and  secure  to  it  time  and  suitable  con- 
ditions, all  as  servants  of  its  larger  aims. 

Wherever  there  is  a  body  of  religious  people  organized  in 
any  way  there  ought  to  be  a  definite  nucleus  of  public  opin- 
ion, a  group  engaged  In  a  real  jDropaganda  to  secure  to  men 
the  rights  of  the  spirit.  Such  groups  will  insist  to-day  that, 
important  as  business,  industry,  and  prosperity  may  be, 
more  important  than  all  is  It  that  the  agencies  of  life  itself, 
the  means  by  which  the  soul  grows,  shall  be  protected  and 
fostered.  If  we  would  have  a  religious  world  order  we 
must  protect  the  right  of  the  family  to  develop  the  life 
of  the  spirit.  The  work  of  the  church  is  almost  wholly 
dependent  on  its  co-operation  in  this  respect. 

The  same  holds  true  as  to  the  physical  conditions  under 
which  many  families  live.  It  is  hard  to  think  how  any  one 
belonging  to  an  organized  group  of  Christians  can  walk  by 
a  tenement  or  a  dwelling  hovel  without  thinking  how  souls 
are  being  dwarfed  in  there.  It  Is  difficult  to  conceive  of  a 
passion  for  righteousness  without  a  passionate  desire  to 


ELEVATING  POPULAR  CONCEPTS  213 

sweep  earth's  rookeries  down,  not  because  they  abase  our 
civic  pride,  but  because  they  hinder  Hfe  from  growing  as 
God  would  have  it  grow.  Perhaps  we  need  less  talk  about 
civic  programmes  in  our  adult  departments  and  more 
realization  of  a  spiritual  programme  which  will  compel  a 
right  soil  for  the  soul.  We  must  give  every  family  a  chance 
to  have  a  real  home. 

ELEVATING  POPULAR  CONCEPTS  " 

In  a  less  definite  but  even  more  important  field  the  church 
with  the  educational  vision  will  render  service.  Our  day 
needs  a  new  conscience  about  family  life,  a  keenness  of  feel- 
ing, and  a  spiritual  vision  of  its  possibiHties  that  will  com- 
pel us  to  treat  the  family  with  reverence.  We  need  new 
ideals  that  will  make  the  silly,  scoffing  Joke  about  the  family, 
the  lewd  story,  the  slighting  allusion  and  current  cynical 
pessimism  absolutely  abhorrent  to  us.  Before  the  world 
had  a  church,  a  Bible,  or  any  other  ordinance  it  had  the 
family.  Surely  it  is  the  divine  instrument  not  only  for  bring- 
ing fives  into  the  world  but  also  for  developing  them  aright; 
and  yet  many  who  would  shrink  from  even  a  pleasantry 
about  a  church  ordinance  will  light-heartedly  pass  slighting 
jokes  on  family  life.  We  must  pledge  ourselves  against  all 
profanity,  the  profanity  which  profanes,  makes  less  sacred, 
any  good  thing.  Might  not  members  of  a  church  pledge 
themselves  to  be  guiltless  of  profane  words  and  conversation 
about  the  family? 

It  is  difficult  to  be  brief  on  so  important  a  subject !  Here 
are  the  families  all  about  us;  here  are  our  own;  and  in 
them  are  the  people  who  will  be  the  society,  the  world,  and 
the  church  of  to-morrow.    It  is  but  one  fleeting  opportunity 


214    THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  FAMILY 

that  is  ours:  these  children  so  soon  grow  up.  But  what  an 
opportunity  it  is  to  do  something  to  make  the  infinitely  in- 
fluential surroundings  of  the  lives  of  these  children  such  as 
will  count  for  righteousness !  Much  is  being  done  to  make 
the  church  school  potent  in  their  lives,  but  that  school 
touches  them  only  for  an  hour  a  week  while  the  family 
touches,  teaches,  develops  them  day  after  day,  under  all 
sorts  of  circumstances.  What  can  be  done  that  will  count 
for  more  than  to  reach  the  children?  And  where  can  they 
be  reached  more  effectively  than  through  their  homes? 

EDUCATING  HOME-MAKERS 

The  church  will  determine  family  life  precisely  as  she  car- 
ries on  all  her  work:  through  the  educational  process  of 
inspiring,  persuading,  and  guiding  the  home-makers.  The 
immediate  need  is  better  parents.  We  need  men  and  women 
who  see  beyond  furniture  and  social  distinction,  who  can  be 
quickened  to  see  the  family  as  the  one  agency  that  is  dealing 
continuously  and  directly  with  the  spiritual  life  of  those  who 
are  just  becoming  the  world  of  to-morrow,  who  can  see  that 
family  life  is  the  school  of  living  in  which  to  develop  persons. 
The  minister  cannot  do  a  greater  service  for  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  than  so  steadily  to  hold  up  the  reality  of  this  spiritual 
purpose  of  the  family  that  its  life  becomes  divine  and 
heavenly.  Let  every  preacher  look  over  his  record  of  topics 
and  see  how  often  he  has  addressed  himself  to  this  oppor- 
tunity. It  is  of  little  use  moulding  public  opinion  on  the 
place  or  nature  of  a  heavenly  home  if  we  fail  to  stimulate  it 
to  securing  the  qualities  of  heaven  in  homes  here. 

There  are  still  more  direct  ways  in  which  the  church 
must  minister  to  the  needs  of  the  modern  family.     Under 


THE  HOME-MAKERS  215 

our  present  educational  organization  there  exists  no  formal 
provision  for  training  parents  for  the  real,  the  fundamental, 
and  most  difficult  duties  of  home  life.  Courses  in  domestic 
science  prepare  some  few  to  make  cookies  and  cakes;  but 
who  shall  prepare  mothers  and  fathers  to  train  character? 
Parents  know  this  is  the  real  problem.  The  churches, 
together  with  all  agencies  of  social  life,  know  that  not  only 
is  character  the  real  problem  but  that  family  life  has  more 
to  do  with  determining  it  than  any  other  force  that  touches 
child  life.  There  are  several  things  that  may  be  done. 
One  of  the  simplest  is  to  organize  a  "parents'  class," 
to  consist  of  parents  who  will  follow  a  special  course  of 
study,  usually  using  as  a  text-book  one  of  the  works  deal- 
ing especially  with  religious  education  in  the  family.* 

It  can  hardly  be  necessary  to  present  an  argument  on  the 
propriety  of  parents'  classes  in  the  church  school.  This 
school  ought  to  help  all  in  all  their  rehgious  problems;  cer- 
tainly the  modern  conditions  of  family  life  present  a  number 
of  these  problems.  The  problems  are  very  definite  and  con- 
crete; they  include  not  only  questions  on  family  worship, 
but  of  books  in  the  home,  children's  lies,  fighting,  quarrels, 
all  that  enters  into  character-development. 

THE   HOME-MAKERS 

In  addition  to  the  parents'  class  it  will  be  possible  in 
many  schools  to  organize  another  which  will  consist  of 
young  people  over  eighteen  years  of  age.  This  class  should 
not  have  a  name  which  indicates  its  special  subject  of  study. 

*  The  text-books  suggested  are :  Child  Study  and  Child  Training, 
Forbush;  Religious  Education  in  the  Family,  Henry  F.  Ck)pe;  and  Child 
Nature  and  Child  Nurture,  Edward  P.  St.  John. 


216         THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  FAMILY 

It  is  designed  to  prepare  young  people  to  take  seriously  the 
matter  of  marriage  and  the  founding  of  home  life.  Experi- 
ence has  shown  that  young  people  looking  forward  to  mar- 
riage are  interested  in  the  great  questions  of  the  family  and 
its  welfare.  Surely  they  should  have  the  opportunity  to 
prepare  for  their  responsibilities.  The  church  alone  can  give 
them  this  preparation.  It  is  strange  that  society,  while  rec- 
ognizing the  fundamental  importance  of  the  family,  should 
make  no  provision  to  prepare  men  and  women  for  its  duties. 
The  schools  teach  domestic  science,  but  here  is  a  more 
difficult  and  a  more  important  matter.  Why  should  not 
courtship,  the  choice  of  a  life  partner,  the  duties  of  hus- 
band and  wife,  the  often  critical  matters  of  the  family 
budget,  the  founding  of  family  life  all  be  studied  in  a  class 
of  adults  in  the  church  school  ?  Is  not  such  study  essen- 
tially religious? 

Both  these  classes  should  have  teachers  of  wide  human 
sympathies,  persons  of  experience  who  see  the  religious  sig- 
nificance of  their  subjects.  They  should  be  able  to  stimu- 
late informal  discussion  of  each  topic  or  lesson.  The  mem- 
bers of  the  classes  will  be  benefited  more  by  the  opportunity 
to  talk  things  over  than  by  any  formal  lectures  or  long  talks 
no  matter  how  able  they  may  be.  The  more  actual  situa- 
tions and  problems  are  discussed  the  better.  It  will  be 
found  that  there  are  no  dull  moments,  no  longings  for  the 
sound  of  the  closing  bell  when  actualities  are  under  discus- 
sion. But  the  discussion  will  need  guidance.  The  text- 
book should  furnish  outlines  for  each  period.  Topics  should 
be  stated  in  advance  and  some  members  should  be  asked  to 
obtain  information  on  specific  points. 


COxNFERENCES  ON  FAMILY  PROBLEMS    217 

CONFERENCES  ON  FAMILY  PROBLEMS 

In  addition  to  conducting  classes  for  parents  on  the  found- 
ing of  home  life,  the  church  can  render  valuable  service  to 
its  members  and  promote  its  own  purposes  by  providing  for 
group  gatheriiigs  and  conferences  on  the  special  problems  that 
perplex  parents.  There  are  many  grave  questions  of  seri- 
ous practical  interest  upon  which  all  fathers  and  mothers, 
and,  indeed,  all  who  have  in  any  way  to  do  with  the  care 
lof  the  young,  desire  help.  They  include  such  problems  as 
family  worship  in  the  home,  dealing  with  moral  difficulties, 
sex  instruction  in  the  home,  the  recreations  and  amusements 
of  the  young,  community  conditions  as  they  affect  children, 
relations  to  the  public  schools,  dealing  with  peculiar  traits 
of  temperament,  studying  Sunday-school  lessons  at  home. 

A  mothers'  club  or  conference,  meeting  probably  on  some 
week-day  afternoon,  ought  to  be  under  the  adult  depart- 
ment of  the  church  school,  belonging  to  the  organization  of 
the  school  and  being  fostered  by  it.  There  are  many  such 
study  groups;  some  follow  set  courses  of  study,  using  text- 
books, and  others  simply  arrange  a  series  of  topics  for  dis- 
cussion. In  some  cases  one  leader  has  charge  of  all  the 
hours  over  a  given  period.  In  others  different  leaders  are 
secured  on  the  ground  of  their  special  familiarity  with  the 
particular  subject  for  each  occasion.  Perhaps  the  best 
plan  is  to  get  a  good  leader  for  the  first  series,  so  as  to  make 
sure  of  an  encouraging  beginning,  and  then  to  pick  out  a 
series  of  leaders  for  the  next  group  of  conferences.  Here 
the  physician,  the  boy  specialist,  the  pastor,  the  social 
worker,  the  public-school  teacher,  and  the  librarian  all 
may  have  valuable  help  to  give. 


218         THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  FAMILY 

Why  not  have  a  series  of  fathers'  conferences  or  at  least  a 
series  so  arranged  as  to  time  of  meeting  and  topics  as  to 
secure  the  attendance  and  participation  of  the  men?  We 
have  too  long  assumed  that  the  moral  and  rehgious  training 
of  the  family  should  all  be  laid  on  the  women's  shoulders. 
The  men  have  taken  the  easy  part  of  providing  the  means, 
the  women  have  accepted  the  harder  one  of  really  making 
the  home  do  its  work.  It  is  not  a  question  whether  we  could 
get  the  men  to  take  over  the  women's  work  in  this  respect. 
The  fact  is  that  it  needs  both.  Not  only  must  there  be  under- 
standing of  the  problem  and  sympathy  with  the  methods 
used,  but,  if  the  work  of  the  family  is  to  be  done  in  the  de- 
velopment of  religious  character  in  children,  both  father  and 
mother  must  do  it  together.  It  would  help  most  men  won- 
derfully to  spend  an  hour  once  a  week  looking  squarely 
at  the  many  most  difficult  problems  they  are  now  inclined 
to  dodge.  We  plead  weariness  from  business  when  we 
get  home;  we  don't  want  to  take  a  fair  share  in  bringing 
up  Willie;  if  we  buy  his  clothes  his  mother  must  take  care 
of  his  character.  But  Willie  never  can  be  brought  up  with- 
out our  care.  He  has  a  right  to  more  than  a  share  of  our 
earnings;  we  owe  him,  as  we  owe  our  home  life  in  its  educa- 
tional aspects,  a  fair  share  of  ourselves. 

Take  one  specific  problem,  not  the  largest  one  but  one  of 
great  difficulty :  what  do  parents  know  about  the  sex  instruc- 
tion  of  their  children  ?  Their  faith  in  their  children  is  splen- 
did and  usually  well  founded ;  children  answer  to  such  faith. 
But  children  are  obtaining  knowledge  in  this  field  and  it  is 
our  duty  to  see  that  the  knowledge  is  clean,  helpful,  positive, 
and  constructive.  How  shall  we  impart  it  to  them?  We 
have  a  right  to  expect  help  in  this  matter  through  the 


COxNFERENCES  ON  FAMILY  PROBLEMS    219 

church.  Amongst  the  many  other  possible  topics  let  this 
one  have  a  place  where  it  will  be  treated  by  a  sane  religious 
physician  who  has  had  to  do  with  children  and  with  this 
problem.* 

Another  typical  problem  is  that  of  family  ivorship.  The 
difficulty  lies  not  so  much  in  that  parents  do  not  want  to 
have  family  prayers  as  in  that  they  do  not  know  how  to 
proceed.  The  old  methods  having  passed  away,  they  do  not 
know  how  to  begin  with  any  new  ones.  Nor  do  they  know 
where  to  find  materials  for  use  in  family  worship. f  There 
are  a  few  books  they  might  read  on  the  subject;  but  people 
do  not  read  books  very  much,  and  books  simply  stare  back 
their  unchanging  pages  at  us  when  we  present  our  par- 
ticular concrete  problems  to  them.  Parents  who  want  to 
know  how  to  do  this  or  that  need  opportunities  to  discuss 
the  actual  situations  that  arise  in  their  own  attempts. 

All  are  more  or  less  familiar  with  the  splendid  accomplish- 
ments of  parent-teacher  associations.  Why  not  have  in  the 
church  frequently  conferences  between  the  parents  of  the 
children  and  the  teachers  of  those  children  in  the  church 
school  ?  The  parents'  conferences  could,  say  once  a  month, 
resolve  themselves  into  the  parent-teacher  conference  of  the 
church.  Few  things  would  do  more  to  secure  helpful  co- 
operation between  the  home  and  the  church  school.  The 
parents  need  to  know  just  what  the  teachers  in  the  school 
are  trying  to  do  with  their  children.  Altogether  the  parents' 
conference,  or  home  conference,  meeting  at  regular  inter- 

*  For  a  list  of  suitable  and  dependable  books  on  this  subject,  see 
Religious  Education,  December,  1916,  pp.  502,  503. 

t  Pamphlets  of  materials  published  by  The  Presbyterian  Board,  1916, 
by  The  Federal  Council  of  Churches,  1917,  and  The  American  Bap- 
tists, 1918. 


220         THE  CHURCH  AXD  THE  EAMH.Y 

vals,  means  the  church  serving  the  needs  of  both  school 
and  home  by  providing  an  open  forum,  under  wise  direction, 
in  which  most  directly  the  actual  work  of  training  the  chil- 
dren of  our  families  and  our  school  in  religious  character 
may  be  helpfully  studied  and  promoted.  Mutual  conference 
Avould  make  it  possible  for  both  home  and  school  to  co- 
ordinate their  religious  instruction.  Teachers  could  help 
parents  to  understand  the  plan  of  the  lesson  course;  where 
graded  lessons  are  used  this  would  be  especially  helpful. 
Sunday-school  lessons  should  be  prepared  with  a  conscious- 
ness of  the  family  life  of  children.  One  course  furnishes  a 
letter  for  each  Sunday  to  be  taken  to  the  pupil's  parents.* 
These  letters  familiarize  the  parents  with  the  plan  of  the 
course,  with  the  general  purpose,  and  with  the  work  each 
week.  They  bring  teacher  and  parent  into  co-operation. 
They  help  to  create  in  the  pupil  a  sense  of  unity  between  the 
family  and  the  church. 

REFERENCES 

Hodges,  George,  The  Training  of  Children  in  Religion  (Appleton, 
1911). 

FoRBUSH,  William  Byron,  Child  Study  and  Child  Training  (Scribners, 
1915). 

Cope,  Henry  F.,  Religions  Education  in  the  Family  (University  of 
Chicago  Press,  1915). 

"Religious  Education  Association,"  a  remarkable  series  of  papers  pub- 
lished in  Religious  Education  in  1911. 

*  The  Beginners^  Course,  in  The  Completely  Graded  Series  (Scribners). 


CHAPTER  XIX 
THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOL 

Are  these  two  great  community  Institutions  antagonistic  ? 
If  both  have  educational  functions,  must  they  not  find  means 
of  co-operation  ?  Neither  one  can  achieve  its  purpose  with- 
out the  other.  The  school  cannot  give  to  society  competent 
citizens  unless  back  of  all  efficiencies  of  living  and  working 
there  are  those  religious  motives  and  ideals  which  make 
work  worthy  and  social  living  kindly  and  beneficial.  The 
school  cannot  say  to  the  church,  "I  have  no  need  of  thee," 
for  in  our  day,  when  the  moral  life  is  subject  to  the  severest 
strain,  society  needs  every  agency  that  may  be  able  to 
strengthen  it.  Neither  can  the  church  ignore  the  school. 
Here,  within  its  walls,  the  growing  lives  of  the  church  spend 
much  more  time  than  they  do  with  her;  here  they  really 
learn  to  live  by  living.  If  the  total  influence  of  the  school 
is  immoral  it  is  almost  impossible  for  the  church  to  turn  the 
tide.  The  church  most  seriously  needs  to  make  an  ally  of 
every  agency  that  touches  the  life  of  youth  and,  most  of  all, 
of  this  one  which  more  and  more  tends  to  become  the  ideal 
and  centre  of  the  child's  developing  social  experience. 

The  people  of  the  schools  need  the  sympathy  and  aid  of 
the  church,  for  they  are  working  in  a  like  cause.  The  school- 
teachers of  America  are  the  largest  body  of  idealists  in  the 
world.  One  cannot  imagine  they  are  teaching  for  the  sala- 
ries;  that  would  be  to  brand  them  as  witless  folk.    They 

221 


222  CHURCH  AND  PUBLIC  SCHOOL 

are  teaching  because  they  are  called  to  teach.  They  have 
faith  in  life  as  growth;  they  would  rather  aid  persons  to 
develop  than  do  anything  else.  They  know,  if  they  are 
teachers  at  all,  that  they  are  not  dealing  with  dull  facts  in 
books;  they  are  dealing  with  vital,  growing  people.  They 
are  not  teaching  lessons;  they  are  teaching  lives.  They  look 
not  to  returns  in  graduates  but  to  lives  quickened,  trained, 
motived  to  full  and  worthy  living.  They  know  that  the 
purposes  of  education  are  achieved  only  as  character  is 
realized.  Often  they  feel  the  loneliness  in  which  they  work; 
the  business  man  thinks  of  them  as  making  good  "figurers,'* 
the  home  as  "making  Johnny  behave,''  and  the  church  re- 
gards them  as  "secular"  workers.  The  educational  aim 
of  the  church  will  be  much  more  readily  realized  if,  in  their 
own  fields,  all  workers  for  ideal  ends  in  the  community  are 
conscious  of  the  sympathy  and  aid  of  every  other  possible 
ally. 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  RELIGIOUS  KNOWLEDGE 

The  church  must  find  some  scheme  of  correlating  her 
work  with  that  of  the  public  schools  so  that  one  of  the  great 
problems  of  American  life  may  be  solved.  We  have,  as  yet, 
discovered  no  plan  by  which  all  children  may  receive  a 
measure  of  instruction  in  religion  and  of  direct,  systematic 
training  in  religious  living  adequate  to  their  life  needs  and 
to  the  needs  of  present-day  social  living.  The  family  has 
almost  everywhere  abandoned  every  form  of  religious  in- 
struction and  seems  scarcely  to  be  conscious  of  a  responsi- 
bility in  religious  training.  The  church  school,  cramped 
into  one  short  period  on  the  day  of  rest,  has  insufficient  time, 
only  an  amateur  teaching  force,  and  seldom  any  special 


PROBLEM  OF  RELIGIOUS  KNOWLEDGE    223 

equipment  for  the  work;  besides  which  it  reaches  less  than 
one-third  of  the  children.  At  least  two-thirds  of  the  chil- 
dren, therefore,  know  of  religion  only  incidentally,  usually 
through  garbled,  misleading,  and  perverted  sources,  while 
the  other  third  know  less  about  religion  than  about  any 
other  subject  or  department  of  knowledge. 

At  first  thought  many  say.  Let  the  public  schools  include 
religious  subjects  in  their  curricula.  That  seems  to  be  a 
simple  solution  until  we  try  it.  What  system  of  religious 
truth  shall  be  taught? — yours,  or  mine,  or  that  of  the  man 
whose  religion  we  either  denounce  or  pity?  Who  shall 
determine?  They  are  all  alike  to  the  civil  eye;  the  state 
knows  no  difference.  Shall  the  question  be  decided  by 
popular  vote?  Then  there  are  communities  where  non- 
Christian  faiths  would  win.  Shall  we  leave  it  to  the  teacher  ? 
When  that  plan  is  put  into  practice  we  discover  how  few 
teachers  would  be  acceptable  to  the  religious  scruples  of 
parents.  Apparently  no  plan  of  direct  religious  instruction 
will  work  in  American  public  schools.  Public  instruction  in 
reHgion  involves  ideas  essentially  un-American,  just  as  it  is 
contrary  to  the  spirit  of  any  free  faith  to  depend  on  the 
power  of  the  state  for  its  propagation. 

Not  only  is  the  public  school  debarred  from  teaching  re- 
ligion by  the  principle  of  freedom  of  conscience,  and  also 
by  the  fact  that  its  workers  are  not  trained  for  that  pur- 
pose, it  is  also  limited  by  the  necessity  that  it  should  keep 
to  its  own  special  field  of  work.  Tlie  community  has  in- 
stitutions designed  for  religious  purposes;  to  attempt  to 
lay  on  the  school  the  teaching  of  religion  would  be  to  take 
away  from  the  church  her  peculiar  duty  and  opportunity 
with  regard  to  the  young.     If  the  day  comes  when  the 


224  CHURCH  AND  PUBLIC  SCHOOL 

schools  take  care  of  the  religious  instruction  of  all  the 
children  it  will  be  difficult  to  see  any  work  remaining  for 
the  church  with  them.  But  that  consideration  is  not  the 
basic  one;  the  function  of  the  church  specifically  requires 
that  she  shall  teach  religion  under  the  auspices  of  the  insti- 
tutions of  religion.  In  order  to  develop  lives  she  must  fur- 
nish an  environment  as  well  as  a  body  of  knowledge.  The 
difficulty  is,  how  to  furnish  efficient  instruction  in  view  of 
the  lack  of  an  educational  programme  and  an  educational 
equipment. 

THE  CONDITIONS  OF  IMPROVEMENT 

The  whole  situation  as  to  religious  knowledge  seems  to  be 
chaotic.  But  one  hopeful  emerging  sign  is  seen  in  the 
general  public  acceptance  of  three  important  considerations: 
first,  that  religion  has  an  essential  place  in  the  education  of 
every  American  child;*  second,  that  the  public  school  can- 
not fiunish  this  essential  element;  and,  third,  that  the  pres- 
ent provision  in  the  greater  number  of  churches  of  a  single 
weekly  period  of  religious  instruction  in  the  "Sunday  school" 
is  wholly  inadequate.  The  second  consideration  is  not 
based  alone  on  the  legal  limitations  of  the  school  in  regard 
to  teaching  religion;  rather  it  is  principally  founded  on  the 
inability  of  the  school  in  this  respect.  The  public  school 
does  not  train  its  teachers  in  the  subject  of  religion;  it  can- 
not formulate  any  commonly  acceptable  body  of  religious 
knowledge,  and  it  is  further  limited  by  the  fact  that  the 
purposes  in  mind  in  teaching  religion  are  so  highly  personal 
that  they  cannot  be  achieved  by  the  ordinary  school  proc- 
esses. These  considerations  throw  the  burden  of  teaching 
*  The  Religious  Education  of  an  American  Citizen,  F.  G.  Peabody,  1917. 


SOME  PROPOSALS  AND  EXPERDIENTS     225 

religion  on  to  agencies  peculiarly  and  specifically  religious. 
Public  opinion  lays  this  responsibility  on  the  church.* 

In  view  of  these  conditions  earnest  persons  have  for  some 
years  past  been  endeavoring  to  discover  practical  plans  by 
which  all  children  and  young  people  should  receive  a  larger 
measure  of  instruction  in  religion  and  to  insure  that  this 
instruction  should  really  become  effectively  a  part  of  their 
general  education.  Several  special  forms  of  activity  in  this 
field  are  to  be  noted:  The  Daily  Vacation  Bible  Schools. 
This  is  a  plan  of  week-day  instruction  in  religion  during 
the  summer  vacation,  the  work  being  usually  done  in  the 
churches. t  The  distinctive  experiments  of  the  North  Dakota 
high  schools,  Colorado  schools,  and  in  New  York,  Gary 
(Indiana),  and  many  other  places  all  provide  for  work  in  re- 
ligion by  school  pupils  to  be  taken  in  churches  or  similar 
places  outside  the  school  building.  { 

SOME  PROPOSALS  AND  EXPERIMENTS 

Legislation  authorizing  Bible-reading  in  the  public  schools. 
But  the  public  schools  are  not  religious  institutions;  they 
are  not  designed  for  teaching  religion  nor  for  worship.  Their 
teachers  are  not  selected  upon  any  religious  qualifications. 
The  use  of  the  Bible  for  teaching  religion  or  for  purposes  of 
worship  in  a  public  school  would  tend  to  give  the  state 
power  over  religious  doctrines  and  customs,  interfering  with 

*  See  "How  Can  Religion  Discharge  Its  Function  in  PubKc  Schools," 
at  pp.  220  f.,  in  Education  and  National  Character,  The  Religious  Edu- 
cation Association. 

t  See  Religious  Education  for  August,  1914;  and  The  Church  Vacation 
School,  Harriet  Chappell  (Revell,  1915;  75  cents), 

t  Described  in  detail  in  free  pamphlets  published  by  The  Religious 
Education  Association,  Chicago,  1916  and  1917. 


226  CHURCH  AND  PUBLIC  SCHOOL 

freedom  of  conscience  and  taking  from  the  chm-cli  its  pe- 
culiar privilege  of  teaching  religion  to  the  young.    . 

Academic  recognition  for  work  done  in  Bible  study  and  re- 
ligion. Certain  important  experiments  have  been  made 
in  this  field: 

(a)  The  North  Dakota  Plan*  The  State  high-school 
board  authorizes  a  syllabus  of  Bible  study.  This  may  be 
carried  on  privately  or  in  special  classes  outside  the  high 
school  and  in  connection  with  Sunday  schools  taught  by 
any  pastor,  priest,  or  other  person.  An  examination  is 
given  at  the  time  of  the  regular  State  examination,  papers 
are  marked  by  readers  appointed  by  the  State  school  board, 
and  those  who  pass  are  given  credit  to  the  extent  of  one-half 
unit  out  of  the  sixteen  required  for  high-school  graduation. 

(6)  The  Colorado  Pla7i.'\  The  Colorado  plan  was  first 
used  in  connection  with  the  State  Teachers'  College,  Greeley, 
Colo.  The  work  is  under  a  "State  Council  of  Religious 
Education.''  The  high  schools  give  credit  for  Bible  study 
of  corresponding  grade,  in  Sunday-school  classes  which  at- 
tain the  standards  of  the  North  Central  Association,  to  an 
extent  not  to  exceed  one-fourth  unit  for  each  year's  work. 
This  system  requires  that  the  teachers  of  such  classes  shall 
have  at  least  an  equivalent  to  the  B.A.  degree  and  shall 
have  special  training  in  the  subjects  which  they  teach, 
that  pupils  shall  be  eligible  to  membership  in  an  accredited 
high  school,  that  churches  shall  provide  such  classes  with 
separate   rooms,   freedom   from   interruption   for   at  least 

*  Originated  by  Prof.  Vernon  P.  Squires  of  the  Univ.  of  North  Da- 
kota; fully  described  in  free  pamphlets  issued  by  the  Rehgious  Educa- 
tion Association,  Chicago. 

t  Originated  by  the  Rev.  D.  D.  Forward.  Described  in  the  free 
pamphlet  pubUshed  by  the  Religious  Education  Association,  Chicago. 


SOME  PROPOSALS  AND  EXPERIMENTS    227 

forty-five  minutes,  desks  for  each  pupil,  blackboard,  maps, 
and  reference  works.  Credit  is  based  upon  forty  recitations 
of  forty-five  minutes  each  for  each  year  with  a  minimum  of 
one  hour  of  study  to  each  lesson. 

(c)  The  Gary  Plan,*  The  Gary  plan  provides  for  children 
of  elementary  and  high  school  grades  being  excused  from 
their  classes  for  from  one  to  six  hours  per  week,  as  may  be 
arranged,  in  order  to  attend  classes  in  their  churches.  The 
parents  elect  the  church  and,  as  a  rule,  the  churches  pro- 
vide special  teachers.  On  January  31,  1918,  the  following 
churches  in  Gary  were  co-operating  in  maintaining  three 
community,  or  neighborhood,  schools,  in  special  buildings, 
with  employed  teachers:  Baptist,  Episcopalian,  United 
Presbyterian,  Congregational,  Methodist,  Disciples,  Presb}^- 
terian,  English  Lutheran,  and  Reformed  Jewish.  With  im- 
portant modifications  this  plan  is  in  use  in  other  places.  It 
is  to  be  noted  that  no  school  funds  are  used  for  this  pur- 
pose, and  no  instruction  is  given  in  the  public  school  nor 
are  school-teachers  employed.  The  system,  however,  does 
involve  certain  definite  provisions  on  the  part  of  the  church 
and  demands  trained  teachers  in  every  church. 

{d)  The  Wemier  Plan.\  The  Wenner  plan  provides  for 
excusing  all  students  one-half  day  per  week  and  allowing 
them  to  go  to  their  respective  churches  for  instruction.  This 
plan  proposes  an  adaptation  of  the  European  system  to 
American  conditions.  There  is  a  marked  tendency  toward 
modifications  of  this  plan  in  the  United  States. 

(e)  Various  'plans  are  being  tried  in  other  places.     Six 

*  Fully  described  in  free  pamphlets  issued  by  the  Religious  Education 
Association,  Chicago. 

t  See  Dr.  George  U.  Wenner's  book,  Religious  Education  and  the 
Public  Schools. 


228  CHURCH  AND  PUBLIC  SCHOOL 

Episcopal  churches  in  New  York  City  have  established 
week-day  schools  of  religion  which  provide  regular  classes 
each  day  usually  immediately  following  the  adjoiu-nment  of 
the  public  school.  Other  churches*  throughout  the  coun- 
try are  trying  similar  plans  for  certain  days  of  the  week. 
An  attempt  is  being  made  in  Toledo  to  carry  out  a  uniform 
city  plan  mider  which  certain  grades  of  the  elementary  school 
woidd  be  dismissed  on  certain  days  one  period  early  in  order 
to  attend  religious  instruction  in  the  pupils'  respective 
churches.  Some  churches  in  New  York,  in  Chicago,  and 
in  other  parts  of  the  country  provide  for  regular  religious 
instruction  in  a  period  before  the  opening  of  the  public 
school.  Experimental  schools  are  being  established,  sup- 
ported not  only  by  the  means  of  the  parish  but  by  funds 
from  a  wider  field,  in  order  that  different  plans  may  be 
tried  and,  by  testing  the  various  methods,  the  right  one  may 
be  discovered.!  At  the  time  of  writing  the  tendency  is 
markedly  toward  classes  of  children  meeting  before  and 
after  the  public-school  periods  each  day. 

(/)  The  Maiden  School  of  Religious  Education  is  an  organ- 
ization planning  a  comprehensive  programme  of  religious 
training  for  an  entire  community.  Organized  at  Maiden, 
Mass.,t  in  1916,  it  began  its  work  by  a  well-organized 
school  of  training  for  teachers  in  religion,  fitting  them 
for  teaching  in  church  schools  and  in  week-day  schools  of 

*  In  New  York — April,  1917 — six  Episcopal,  one  Dutch  Reformed, 
two  Lutheran,  three  Methodist,  one  Moravian,  three  Presbyterian,  and 
one  Reformed  Presbyterian  have  organized  week-day  instruction  of 
school  children. 

t  The  work  of  a  demonstration  school  of  this  kind  is  described  in 
Religious  Education  for  February,  1916,  p.  62. 

X  Organized  by  Prof.  Walter  S.  Atheam,  who  has  pubUshed  several 
valuable  pamphlets  on  the  work  of  this  school. 


CONDITIONS  OF  OPERATION  229 

religion.    It  looks  forward  to  complete  community  organiza- 
tion in  religious  education. 

CONDITIONS  OF  OPERATION 

Work  of  this  character  necessitates  a  special  worker,  a 
trained  teacher,  in  charge  of  all  week-day  instruction. 
Actual  experience  is  making  one  other  need  very  keenly 
felt,  that  since  we  have  but  one  school  of  general  education 
to  each  neighborhood  the  churches  shall  have  as  much  good 
sense  as  the  community  and  shall  syndicate  their  teaching 
work  in  one  good  school  of  religious  instruction  for  all  chil- 
dren. A  community  school  of  religion  is  not  at  all  incon- 
ceivable. It  is  highly  desirable.  It  would  avoid  duplication 
of  teaching  plants  and  would  foster  social  unity.  A  com- 
munity building  does  not  imply  uniform  teaching  for  the 
children  of  all  the  churches.  At  first  it  would  only  provide 
a  building  with  equipment  for  all.  It  could  arrange  for 
teachers  in  common  for  churches  which  were  able  thus  to 
agree.  It  would  not  imply  any  form  of  community  con- 
trol over  religious  faith.* 

A  community  building  would  not  need  to  be  nearly  as 
large  as  that  for  the  public  school  because  not  all  the  chil- 
dren would  be  in  classes  at  the  same  time.  But,  ultimately, 
as  the  varied  possibilities  of  such  a  building  were  realized, 
it  would  be  found  best  to  provide  facilities  practically  equiva- 
lent to  those  of  the  public  school.  This  would  permit  of 
carrying  on  many  forms  of  training  for  all  children  in  the 
community. 

The  significance  of  all  these  enterprises  lies,  first,  in  the 

*  In  1918  the  churches  of  Gary  approximate  to  this  plan  by  means 
of  two  community  schools. 


230  CHURCH  AND  PUBLIC  SCHOOL 

fact  tliat  the  churches  are  really  being  awakened  to  their 
responsibility  for  the  religious  instruction  of  children,  that 
there  is  a  serious  attempt  to  secure  to  the  child,  under  the 
conditions  of  American  freedom  of  conscience,  his  religious 
heritage,  and,  second,  that  just  as  the  public  schools  are 
beginning  to  recognize  tlie  propriety  and  value  of  many  cul- 
tural activities  outside  the  school  building,  so  also  the  school 
recognizes  training  in  religion  as  one  of  the  proper  elements 
of  culture  which  may  be  given  through  the  church  or  any 
other  competent  outside  agency. 

It  is  also  interesting  to  note  the  manner  in  which  the  prob- 
lems of  religious  freedom  have  been  met  in  securing  these 
adjustments.  The  plans  mentioned  above  do  not  in  any 
case  involve  the  use  of  the  school  building,  school  equip- 
ment, school  authority  or  school  workers  in  their  professional 
capacities.  They  are  all  voluntary  activities  in  relation  to 
which  the  State  functions  only  by  recognizing  their  values. 
Surely  the  development  of  so  many  types  of  plans  and 
their  successful  operation  under  varied  conditions  marks  an 
encouraging  step  forward  in  the  development  of  education 
and  especially  in  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  religious 
education  under  civil  freedom. 

Before  a  campaign  for  the  week-day  religious  instruction 
of  school  children  is  begun  certain  principles  ought  to  be 
very  clear  in  the  minds  of  all  advocates.  First,  that  these 
are  plans  for  religious  instruction  hy  the  churches;  none  con- 
templates either  the  teaching  of  religion  in  public  schools 
or  the  use  of  school  funds,  school  property,  school  authority, 
or  school  officials  as  such.  The  plans  function  not  through 
the  school  but  through  the  church  and  the  family.  The 
church  provides  facilities,  instructors,  and  curricula;    the 


CONDITIONS  OF  OPERATION  231 

family  exercises  its  rightful  authority  in  sending  children 
or  requiring  them  to  take  the  course  of  study.  The  school, 
under  the  high-school  plans,  simply  recognizes  the  academic 
values  of  the  work  done  and,  under  the  Gary  plan,  affords 
certain  free  periods  in  which  pupils  may  attend  church 
classes.  Every  church  must  stand  upon  an  equahty  of 
opportunity.  The  right  to  give  religious  instruction  is  not 
derived  from  the  schools;  it  is  a  part  of  the  right  of  each 
church  and  the  duty  arises  from  the  function  of  the  church. 

Second,  the  evident  advantages  of  these  plans  cannot  be 
realized  unless  we  take  them  with  sufficient  seriousness  to 
make  adequate  preparation  for  the  work  involved  and  to 
provide  to  pay  the  hills.  This  is  not  a  new  painless,  payless 
panacea.  All  the  plans  require  the  provision  of  proper 
instructional  quarters  and  equipment.  This  means  a  room, 
or  rooms,  designed  for  class  purposes,  large  enough,  properly 
— not  ecclesiastically — lighted,  with  study  desks  or  tables, 
blackboards  and  ventilation.  Do  we  so  seriously  desu-e  the 
religious  instruction  of  our  children  as  to  make  provision 
proportionately  adequate  to  that  which  the  State  makes 
for  general  education  or  rather  to  that  which  we  ourselves 
make  through  the  State? 

Third,  adequate  provision  includes  competent  teaching. 
Under  the  high-school  plans  this  means  efficient  teaching  of 
the  standard  of  the  high-school  teachers'  associations.  The 
academic  standards  can  be  attained  only  by  professionally 
trained  teachers.  The  Gary  plan  requires  such  teaching 
for  from  four  to  sixteen  periods  a  week.  Evidently  no  pas- 
tor can  follow  such  a  schedule  unless  he  abandons  nearly 
all  other  parish  work.  In  larger  churches  the  plan  necessi- 
tates the  employment  of  a  professionally  trained  teacher 


232  CHURCH  AND  PUBLIC  SCHOOL 

for  his  or  her  entire  time;  in  smaller  chm-ches  it  means 
either  that  several  will  co-operate  in  the  greater  part  of  the 
instruction  or  that  they  will  secure  professionally  trained 
teachers  who  will  give  part  time  for  pay. 

The  curriculum  is  the  most  serious  problem  in  week-day 
instruction.  At  present  we  neither  know  what  we  should 
teach  nor  why  we  teach  the  present  courses.  In  the  Gary 
church  schools  the  curriculum  is  the  great  unsolved  problem. 
A  few  of  the  church  boards  are  attacking  it  with  seriousness, 
calling  to  their  aid  the  wisdom  of  educators  and  religious 
leaders.  But  surely  here  is  a  splendid  opportunity  for  some- 
thing broader  than  denominational  lessons.  No  coloring 
of  "isms"  should  enter  the  text-books  in  these  schools  which 
are  parallel  to  the  public  schools.  Special  indoctrination 
can  be  given  at  other  times.  In  any  case  it  is  a  pity  to 
emphasize  sectarian  differences  where  we  are  endeavoring 
to  discover  methods  of  co-operative  work.  The  lessons 
should  be  planned  not  as  supplementary  to  the  present 
Sunday-school  courses;  they  should  be  unitary  in  them- 
selves, planned  as  courses  of  instruction  and  training  in 
religious  living. 

Further,  what  shall  be  the  relation  of  these  schools  to  the 
present  programmes  of  the  Sunday  schools?  Under  the 
proposed  plans,  what,  out  of  all  the  wide  area  of  religious 
instruction — the  Bible,  the  whole  history  of  religion,  the 
present  work  of  the  church,  worship,  daily  Christian  social 
living,  and  all  the  rest — shall  belong  to  the  Sunday  school 
and  what  to  the  week-day  school?  Will  the  latter  at 
length  make  the  former  unnecessary  and  thus  leave  the  day 
more  free  for  worship  and  rest?  Shall  we  teach  our  dis- 
tinctive doctrines  or  ideals  in  the  different  churches  on  Sun- 


CONDITIOXS  OF  OPERATION  233 

days  and  then  be  able  to  combine  on  the  week-day  curric- 
uhim  of  religion  ? 

These  by  no  means  negligible  questions  are  raised,  not  at 
all  as  insuperable  obstacles,  but  as  problems  worth  facing; 
they  are  suggested  in  the  hope  of  stimulating  all  interested 
persons  to  take  the  present  opportunities  with  worthy  serious- 
ness and  in  the  confidence  that  such  solutions  will  be  found 
as  will  lead  to  high  success.  The  opportunity  is  so  large, 
the  promise  so  alliu-ing,  that  we  must  face  all  that  it  means. 
These  large  problems  are  challenging  all  who  believe  in  the 
child  for  the  kingdom,  in  the  confidence  of  a  reasonable 
and  more  adequate  programme  for  the  religious  education  of 
all  our  children. 

REFERENCES 

Wood,  Clarence  A.,  School  and  College  Credits  for  Bible  Study  (World 
Book  Company,  1917). 

Winchester,  B.  S.,  Religious  Education  in  a  Democracy  (Abingdon, 
1917). 

Athearn,  W.  S.,  Religious  Education  and  American  Democracy  (Pilgrim 
Press,  1917). 

Cope,  Henry  F,,  Church  and  School  in  Religions  Education,  bulletin 
no.  4,  free  (American  Baptist  Publication  Society,  1915). 

Religious  Education  Association,  numerous  free  pamphlets,  includ- 
ing a  bibliography  on  this  subject. 


CHAPTER  XX 
ORGANIZING  FOR  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

It  may  be  said  that  this  book  gathers  all  the  work  of  the 
church  together  under  the  head  of  education.  That  is  true 
in  that  it  views  and  seeks  to  evaluate  all  church  work  under 
the  educational  aim  and  function.  For  if  the  church  is 
loyal  to  her  purpose  of  developing  persons  and  society  toward 
the  divine  ideal  then  she  is  either  doing  educational  work  or 
not  doing  her  proper  work  at  all.  But  there  is  always  dan- 
ger, in  thinking  of  education  in  the  broader,  inclusive  terms, 
that  we  lose  ourselves  in  generalities  and  fail  to  deal  w^ith  the 
specific  forms  of  endeavor  necessary  to  achieve  the  educa- 
tional aim. 

We  know  that  the  experience  of  a  young  man  in  an  office, 
and  perhaps  still  more  in  a  workshop,  will  develop  his 
powers,  increase  his  abilities,  and  so  become  really  a  factor 
in  his  education.  Yet  for  the  sake  of  clear  thinking  we  do 
not  usually  classify  the  factories  as  educational  institutions. 
True,  it  would  be  a  good  plan  to  think  more  frequently  of 
their  educational  responsibilities;  but  by  educational  in- 
stitutions we  usually  mean  those  that  have  to  do  with  or- 
ganized training  for  life,  in  social  groups,  under  directed  dis- 
ciplines. These  definite  institutions  develop  out  of  the 
general  educational  consciousness.     They  keep  it  alive  and 

234 


THE  SITUATION  235 

develop  it.  So,  in  the  church,  it  is  quite  clear  that  in  order 
efficiently  to  serve  in  religious  education  she  must  some- 
where find  place  for  specific  organization  in  education.  She 
must  teach.  With  all  emphasis  on  the  real  educational 
values  of  all  forms  of  church  experience  there  still  remains 
the  need  for  knowledge  of  the  facts  and  ideals  of  religion. 
In  order  fully  to  discharge  her  educational  duty  the  church 
must  do  the  work  of  a  school. 

That  instruction  in  religion  is  a  real  and  essential  part  of 
religious  education  needs  no  argument.  Knowledge  func- 
tions in  education  to  open  up  the  race  heritage,  to  give  the 
facts  of  the  world,  to  place  in  the  hands  the  tools  by  which 
life's  real  work  is  done,  and  to  exhibit  the  ideals  which  lead 
lives  forward  and  sustain  them.  Therefore,  the  religious 
person  needs  to  know  the  history,  the  literature,  the  facts, 
ideals,  and  principles  of  religion.  The  church  is  the  one 
institution  which  is  organized  to-day  to  give  this  instruction. 
No  other  which  deals  with  the  lives  of  the  young  has  either 
freedom  or  competency  for  the  task. 

THE  SITUATION 

A  new  situation  has  developed  in  regard  to  religious 
knowledge.  Formerly  we  could  count  on  many  agencies  to 
impart  instruction  in  religion.  The  week-day  school  in- 
cluded religion  in  its  curriculum.  But  gradually,  irrespective 
of  civil  conditions,  the  general  curriculum  has  crowded  re- 
ligion out.  Once  the  family  counted  religious  teaching  as 
one  of  its  regular  duties.  Now  the  family  assumes  that  it 
can  leave  all  instruction  to  the  schools,  and  the  schools,  on 
their  part,  so  far  as  religion  is  concerned,  leave  it  all  to  the 
churches,  while  the  churches  say  that  for  such  instruction 


23G      ORGANIZING  FOR  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

they  have  the  ''Sunday  school."  But  let  it  be  remembered 
that  the  Sunday  school  was  not  designed  to  meet  such  a 
situation  as  this;  indeed,  it  has  grown  up  without  much 
designing  of  any  sort  so  far  as  educational  responsibility  is 
concerned. 

AVith  the  duty  before  us  of  raising  a  religious  generation 
and  recognizing  instruction  in  religion  as  a  part  of  that  duty, 
it  is  well  to  face  the  actual  situation.  Only  a  small  propor- 
tion of  our  child  population,  outside  of  Roman  Catholic 
parishes,  receives  any  regular  religious  instruction  in  the 
course  of  general  education.  Much  less  than  one-half  of 
the  child  population  attends  any  kind  of  schools  on  Sunday, 
and  even  those  who  do  attend  receive  less  than  forty  minutes 
of  instruction  weeklj^  commonly  given  by  persons  who  are 
not  teachers,  given  in  buildings  not  designed  for  teaching 
and  in  institutions  not  controlled  by  teaching  ideals.  For 
the  forty  millions  of  school-age  children  in  the  United  States, 
for  example,  there  are  each  week  one  thousand  million 
(1,000,000,000)  hours  of  general  instruction  and  at  best 
eight  million  (8,000,000)  hours  of  religious  instruction.  In 
other  words,  in  our  general  scheme  of  education,  embrac- 
ing both  church  and  public  schools,  religion  holds  the  pro- 
portion of  eight  to  one  thousand.  Then  we  wonder  that 
college  students  are  ignorant  of  the  Bible;  rather  the  wonder 
is  that  they  know  as  much  as  they  do. 

How  shall  this  situation  be  met  ?  By  perfecting  the  pres- 
ent church  school  ?  That  will  not  meet  the  situation.  We 
ought  to  bring  this  institution  to  the  fulness  of  its  pos- 
sibilities, but  it  must  be  seen  as  only  a  part  of  the  com- 
prehensive system  of  organized  instruction  in  religion  for 
which  the  churches  are  responsible. 


WEAKNESS  OF  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL     237 


THE  WEAKNESS  OF  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

We  have  leaned  for  a  long  time  on  the  "Sunday  schoor'; 
much  earnest  and  sacrificing  effort  has  gone  into  its  im- 
provement, and  it  has  made  real  and  noteworthy  improve- 
ment in  recent  years.  Many  feel  that  it  is  still  the  sole  solu- 
tion of  our  problem  of  religious  instruction.  They  must 
face  certain  considerations:  First,  one  period  a  week  can 
never  provide  sufficient  time  to  give  religion  its  due  place  in 
the  curriculum  of  knowledge.*  Second,  religious  knowledge 
cannot  hold  its  due  place  so  long  as  it  is  taught  by  persons 
who  are  not  trained  teachers;  the  most  devoted  earnestness 
cannot  take  the  place  of  trained  efficiency.  Neither,  on  the 
other  hand,  can  any  degree  of  professional  training  take  the 
place  of  a  religious  personality.  But  it  is  not  unthinkable 
that  teachers  should  combine  both  true  piety  and  professional 
ability.  Third,  instruction  in  religion  requires  at  least  as 
good  conditions  of  work  and  as  suitable  equipment  as  any 
other.  It  cannot  maintain  its  parity  with  other  fields  of 
knowledge  so  long  as  the  places  of  instruction  are  make- 
shifts designed  without  any  reference  whatever  to  the  proc- 
esses of  instruction.  Fourth,  we  do  not  have  any  generally 
accepted  curriculum  of  religious  knowledge.  We  have  a 
fair  curriculum  of  biblical  information,  but  as  yet  only 
the  beginnings  of  a  course  of  instruction  based  upon  the 
purposes  of  religion  with  the  lives  of  those  who  are  learning. 

*  Mr.  George  W.  Pepper  says,  in  A  Voice  Jroyn  the  Crowd,  p.  101 : 
"The  Sunday  school  is,  in  the  last  analysis,  an  agency  which  attempts 
on  one  day  in  seven  to  repair  the  damage  systematically  done  to  the 
Christian  theory  of  Life  during  the  other  six.  ...  If  religious  educa- 
tion is  supplementary  and  optional  the  chance  is  very  great  that  re- 
ligion itself  will  soon  come  to  be  so  regarded." 


238      ORGANIZING  FOR  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

We  are  beginning  to  realize  the  need  of  a  scientific  educa- 
tional basis  for  religious  instruction.  Last,  we  must  face 
the  question  whether  we  ought  to  expect  to  have  a  real  school 
of  religion  on  Sundays.  To  the  child,  school  is  precisely 
what  work  is  to  the  adult;  it  is  the  child's  normal  working 
discipline.  It  is  a  serious  question  whether  we  are  train- 
ing for  the  preservation  of  the  day  of  rest  by  insisting  on  the 
child's  working  experience  being  carried  over  into  that  day. 
The  more  truly  we  make  the  church  school  a  real  school  the 
greater  the  danger  is  in  that  direction. 

Surely  no  one  will  leap  to  the  conclusion  that  we  must  at 
once  abandon  all  church  schools.  No;  but  we  must  think 
through  the  situation,  in  view  of  a  real  programme  of  the 
education  of  persons  in  religion,  rather  than  in  terms  of 
existing  institutions.  It  is  not  the  business  of  religious  educa- 
tion to  save  the  Sunday  school,  but  rather,  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  education  deals  with  religious  persons,  to  discover  and 
secure  to  religion  its  right  place  in  education  and  to  provide 
for  religious  instruction. 

There  can  hardly  be  any  question  that  the  church  is  the 
institution  responsible  for  religion.  Save  as  the  family 
has  the  primary  responsibility,  it  cannot  delegate  its  duty 
to  any  other  institution  and  it  must  be  responsible  for  seeing 
that  the  family  is  faithful  in  this  respect.  For  the  formal 
instruction  of  the  young  in  religion  we  must  look  to  the 
churches.  Rehgion  must  be  taught  in  religious  institutions 
by  persons  selected  for  their  religious  leadership.  To  give 
the  religious  instruction  of  the  young  to  public  agencies 
w^ould  mean  for  the  church  the  loss  of  their  only  common 
vital  and  normal  contact  witli  young  lives;  they  would 
then  begin  work  with  people  when  their  habits  and  ideals 
were  already  largely  formed. 


A  NORMAL  PROGRAAIiVIE  239 


A  NORMAL  PROGRAMME 

What  would  constitute  a  normal  programme  for  religious 
instruction  in  a  church?  How  can  the  modern  church  dis- 
charge its  responsibility  for  the  religious  training  of  the 
young? 

First:  By  trained  competent  leadership.  General  leader- 
ship beginning  in  the  groups  or  communions  of  churches 
and  then  working  down  into  the  individual  churches.  Steps 
are  being  taken  in  this  direction.  Nearly  all  the  larger 
church  communions  have  special  national  boards  or  com- 
missions of  religious  education.*  Gradually  these  are  com- 
ing to  include  in  their  numbers  those  who  can  be  recognized 
as  experts  in  religious  education,  trained  in  education  as  a 
science  and  specializing  in  religious  training. f  The  boards 
are  employing  such  experts  to  direct  the  educational  work  of 
the  churches  for  which  they  are  responsible.  Colleges  are 
offering  courses  looking  forward  to  such  professional  leader- 
ship, and  the  graduate  schools,  theological  seminaries,  and 
the  like  are  training  those  who  can  give  this  leadership. f 
Secretaries  of  education  now  have  a  recognized  place  in 
denominational  machinery,  not  for  the  promotion  of  college 
work  alone,  but  for  the  development  of  the  educational 
work  of  local  churches. 

Such  leadership  is  needed  also  icithin  the  local  church.  This 
cannot  be  expected  from  the  pastor  who  has  been  trained 

*  The  following  communions  have  special  boards  of  this  character : 
Protestant  Episcopal,  Baptist  (Northern),  Congregational,  Brethren, 
Methodist  Episcopal  (Board  of  Sunday  Schools). 

t  Some  of  the  boards  are  requiring  their  salaried  workers  to  accom- 
plish specified  professional  reading  each  year. 

t  For  particulars  of  the  courses  of  training,  see  Religious  Education 
for  October,  1915. 


240      ORGANIZING  FOR  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

for  other  tasks  and  who  has  a  full  schedule  of  other  duties. 
He  cannot  give  either  the  expert  direction,  which  he  has  not 
himself  received,  nor  the  time  necessary  to  secure  to  all  the 
children  of  a  parish  their  full  right  of  religious  instruction. 
It  ought  to  be  said,  however,  that  every  pastor  should  have 
sufficient  training  in  religious  education  to  make  him  fairly 
intelligent  on  this  part  of  the  work  of  a  church.  But  here 
is  a  specialized  field  for  w^hich  a  new  profession  is  being 
created.  The  "Director  of  Religious  Education,"  as  he  is 
usually  called,  stands  in  relation  to  all  the  educational  work 
of  the  church  just  as  the  pastor  does  -to  all  its  other  work. 
He  is  the  trained  educator  solely  responsible  for  all  the 
educational  work.* 

Not  every  church  will  be  able  to  have  its  own  director. 
But  there  would  seem  to  be  no  good  reason  why  several 
churches  should  not  combine  to  place  all  their  work  of  this 
kind  under  the  direction  of  one  expert.  We  have  thus 
syndicated  community  enterprises  in  other  respects,  notably 
in  our  public  schools.  We  do  this  to  secure  a  recreation 
director  in  the  modern  village  or  city  community.  Such  a 
plan  should  not  and  need  not  interfere  at  all  with  church 
integrity  or  loyalty;  the  same  educational  principles  hold 
good  in  all  types  of  churches;  a  director  does  not  change  his 
efiiciencies  when  he  goes  from  a  Baptist  to  a  Presbyterian 
church.  All  we  need  is  as  much  common  sense  here  as  we 
use  ip.  other  areas  of  life. 

Second:   A  proper  place  in  the  organization  of  the  church 

by  the  creation  of  a  local  body,  board,  or  committee  for  the 

promotion  and  general  oversight  of  the  educational  work. 

Just  as  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  has  long  required, 

*  See  Chapter  XXI,  "  The  Direction  of  Religious  Education." 


A  NORMAL  PROGRAMME  241 

in  "The  Discipline,"  that  each  church  shall  have  its  local 
board  of  Sunday  schools,  so  other  churches  meeting  their 
enlarged  responsibilities  are  organizing  local  committees  and 
boards  of  religious  education.*  Amongst  other  things  this 
church  board  will  see  that  the  church  takes  the  next  step. 

Third:  Provision  in  the  church  budget  for  sufficient  funds 
to  carry  on  the  educational  work.  It  is  only  necessary  to 
examine  the  budget  of  almost  any  church  to  realize  that 
churches  do  not  yet  take  seriously  the  religious  education 
of  the  young.  Compare  what  the  community  spends  for 
general  education  with  what  all  its  churches  actually  appro- 
priate for  religious  education.  Or  compare  the  expenditures 
of  your  own  church  directly  for  adults  with  its  special  ex- 
penditures for  children. 

Fourth:  The  'provision  of  suitable  equipment.  We  have 
long  recognized  that  for  purposes  of  worship  the  churches 
require  special  buildings  especially  designed  and  maintained 
for  that  sole  purpose.  Why  assume  that  the  need  is  any 
less  real  for  the  purposes  of  instruction?  W^ich  can  the 
more  readily  adapt  itself,  if  adaptation  be  necessary,  the 
child  or  the  adult  ?  But  w^e  force  the  child  to  try  to  adapt 
himself  to  the  commonly  more  than  ample  provision  made 
for  the  adult.  It  may  be  questioned  whether  we  have  not 
overbuilt  auditoriums;  certainly  we  have  underbuilt  in 
schools.  Remember,  we  are  not  here  discussing  church 
schools  as  such,  but  the  question  of  the  provision  necessary 
to  carry  out  the  duty  of  the  church  in  the  religious  education 
of  the  young,  t 

♦  See  Chapter  XXI,  "The  Direction  of  Religious  Education." 
t  Reference  must  be  made  again  to  the  more  detailed  treatment  of 
the  subject  of  buildings  in  the  author's  Modern  Sunday  School  (Revell) 


242      ORGANIZING  FOR  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

Of  course  not  all  churches  can  erect  special  buildings  for 
instructional  purposes.  It  would  often  be  bad  economy  to 
attempt  to  put  up  a  special  building  for  a  small  number  of 
children.  But,  again,  why  not  do  what  we  have  done  with 
reference  to  public  education  ?  Is  it  inconceivable  that  the 
village  should  have  one  building  erected  by  all  the  religious 
bodies  or  by  a  group  of  persons  with  vision  who  would 
devote  the  building  to  the  uses  of  all  ?  Not  a  Sunday-school 
building  alone,  but  a  building  designed  for  educational  work, 
to  be  used  as  fully  as  is  possible  for  that  work.  The  question 
is  no  longer  what  sort  of  a  building  is  needed  to  accommo- 
date so  many  classes  every  Sunday  morning,  but  just  what 
physical  plant  is  required  for  this  larger  inclusive  service, 
for  adequate  provision  for  the  religious  nurture  of  all  the 
children  of  a  parish  or  of  a  community.  Whatever  is  pro- 
vided ought  to  be  planned  with  at  least  three  sets  of  facts 
in  mind.  These  are:  first,  the  facts  as  to  the  community, 
as  to  numbers  for  whom  provision  is  to  be  made,  including 
the  probable  increase  within  a  period  of  years;  second,  as 
to  types  of  work  to  be  conducted,  what  the  special  conditions 
of  the  community  will  require,  whether  play  and  recreation 
work  will  be  prominent,  whether  class  work  will  be  the 
main  emphasis,  the  types  of  work  which  are  required  by  the 
programme  of  the  church  for  youth;  and,  third,  the  special 
requirements  of  educational  work,  conditions  of  lighting, 
heating,  divisions  of  space,  provisions  for  inner  equipment  in 
apparatus,  blackboards,  cabinets,  benches,  varieties  of  seats, 
arrangements  for  group  gatherings,  classes,  and  social  oc- 
casions. 

and  his  Efficiency  in  the  Sunday  School  (Doran).  For  a  careful,  helpful 
book  on  the  subject,  see  The  Sunday  School  Building  and  Its  Equip- 
ment, by  H.  F.  Evans  (Univ.  of  Chicago  Press). 


A  NORMAL  PROGRAIVJjME  243 

Much  has  been  accomplished  on  this  important  detail.  A 
number  of  good  buildings  have  been  erected.*  In  time 
certain  standards  will  be  worked  out.  But  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  no  single  plan  will  fit  all  places,  that  each 
church  will  find  special  conditions  requiring  adaptation  of 
standard  plans  and  that  it  is  always  a  good  thing  for  the  peo- 
ple of  a  church  to  study  carefully  their  own  needs  and  to 
employ  trained  guidance  in  this  matter. 

Fifth:  A  programme  of  instruction  and  training  which  is 
designed  for  the  purpose  of  growing  religious  persons  and 
developing  them  into  a  religious  society,  and  which  is  de- 
termined as  to  its  parts  and  methods  by  the  needs  and  abili- 
ties of  these  persons  at  the  different  stages  of  their  devel- 
opment. As  to  instruction  this  means  a  complete  scheme 
of  religious  knowledge  for  educational  purposes.  Recently 
two  forward  steps  have  been  taken  as  to  curricula;  we  have 
begun  to  improve  the  methods  of  studying  the  Bible,  par- 
ticularly by  grading  the  materials  of  study  according  to  the 
interests  and  needs  of  growing  persons,  and  we  are  now  in- 
cluding wider  ranges  of  religious  knowledge.  No  church  is 
doing  educational  work  which  does  not  have  courses  of  study 
in  the  Bible  graded  for  every  stage  of  the  life  of  the  young. 
But  further,  it  surely  ought  to  provide  orderly,  graded  courses 
of  instruction  by  which  all  persons  would  come  into  their  full 
heritage  of  religious  knowledge  applied  to  modern  social  and 
moral  problems.  Real  religious  instruction  will  not  shut 
the  student  up  in  a  house  of  ancient  Oriental  imagery,  his- 
tory, and  literature.  It  will  not  leave  the  impression  that 
the    divine   fatherhood   resigned   about  70  A.  D.     It  will 

*  For  a  list  of  typical  buildings  and  for  the  names  of  architects 
specializing  in  this  field,  obtain  the  free  pamphlet  issued  by  the  Re- 
ligious Education  Association,  Chicago. 


244      ORGANIZING  FOR  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

make  to-day  and  every  day  as  really  religious  as  the  day  of 
creation  or  of  Pentecost.  It  will  teach  religion  not  alone  as 
a  history  and  a  literature,  but  as  life,  as  the  power  working 
in  all  the  world  for  righteousness.  This  wider  range  of  ma- 
terial is  included  wherever  the  point  of  view  is  clearly  that 
of  training  persons  for  religious  living. 

Sixth :  Provision  for  the  enlistment  and  preparation  of  the 
working  forces  for  religious  education.  The  general  prop- 
aganda in  Nortli  America  for  teacher-training  was  a  be- 
ginning in  this  direction.  The  next  step  has  been  that  of 
offering  special  courses  for  officers.  The  third  step  is  that 
which  is  being  carried  out  in  certain  community  schools  of 
religion,*  where  an  attempt  is  made  to  provide  training 
for  all  forms  of  neighborhood  service  and  church  work  in 
religion.  The  responsibility  on  each  church  is  to  see  that 
every  worker  in  every  field  in  the  parish  can  obtain  such 
instruction  and  training  as  are  necessary.  Teacher-train- 
ing must  be  enlarged  to  include  church-worker  training. 
The  training  must  become  an  integral  part  of  the  curriculum 
of  the  church,  a  part  of  its  scheme  of  education,  training  in 
the  activities  of  the  religious  life.  All  instruction  will  move 
on  into  activity,  all  courses  will  lead  forward  into  service; 
there  will  be  work  for  all  and  designed  opportunity  to  ac- 
quire efficiency  in  the  work.  We  must,  at  present,  depend 
on  volunteer  service;  but  it  need  not  and  must  not  be  an 
ignorant,  hindering  pretense  of  service,  f  A  programme  of 
religious  education  will  include,  besides  the  courses  in  the 
church,  the  support  of  the  community  institute  and  the  aid 
and  encouragement  of  workers  in  securing  further  training 

*  As  at  Maiden  and  at  Norwood,  Mass. 
t  See  Chapter  XIV  on  "  Training  Workers.'! 


A  NORMAL  PROGRA]MME  245 

through  reading  courses,  extension  study,  and  summer  in- 
stitutes. 

The  programme  will  include  all  that  is  needed  in  training 
the  religious  life  through  its  activity,  through  experience. 
The  curriculum  of  the  church  will  mean  an  interpretation  of 
all  parts  of  the  work  of  a  church  in  terms  of  their  fitness  for 
and  their  power  in  the  processes  of  developing  persons  in 
righteousness. 

So  that  the  church  organized  for  direct  educational  work, 
in  order  to  carry  out  its  special  task  of  religious  instruction, 
will  have  trained,  competent,  special  leadership,  designed 
organization,  a  budget  for  education,  necessary  buildings 
and  physical  equipment  and  a  curriculum  of  instruction 
and  training. 

REFERENCES 

Athearn,  W.  S.,  The  Church  School  (Pilgrim  Press,  1915). 

Cope,  Henry  P.,  The  Modern  Sunday  School  and  Its  Present-Day  Task 
(ReveU,  1916). 

Efficiency  in  the  Sunday  School  (Doran,  1912). 

American  Baptist  Publication  Society,  bulletin  no.  2,  *'A  Pro- 
gramme of  Religious  Education"  (1912). 

Education  in  a  Local  Church,  Report  of  Commission  on  Religious 
Education,  1913. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
THE  DIRECTION  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

In  a  preceding  chapter  on  the  meaning  of  education  it 
was  suggested  that  the  broader  concept  of  education  as  the 
directed  evolution  of  lives  comes  to  a  very  much  narrower 
focus  in  the  study  of  organized  methods  of  education.  So 
also  the  inclusive,  broad  concept  of  all  the  work  of  the  church 
focuses  itself  in  a  definite  range  of  activities  which  are 
evidently  educational.  These  are  the  explicit  manifesta- 
tions of  the  implicit  ideal  and  spirit  of  education,  the  out- 
ward signs  of  the  inner  grace.  The  maintenance  of  the 
general  concept  will  depend  on  the  efficiency  with  which  it 
is  realized  in  specific  work.  The  church  that  holds  to  the 
educational  vision  must  visualize  it  concretely;  under  gen- 
eralization it  soon  fades  away. 

Hence  there  will  be  in  every  church  at  least  two  specific 
appointments  for  the  leadership  of  direct  educational  work. 
There  are  the  committee  on  education  and  the  director  of 
religious  education.  This  book  intentionally  avoids  any 
detailed  treatment  of  the  organization  and  method  of  the 
church  school  or  Sunday  school;  the  author  has  already 
attempted  to  treat  these  subjects  with  some  care,*  but  it  is 

*  See  Eficiency  in  the  Sunday  School,  Henrj^  F.  Cope  (Doran,  1912); 
The  Modern  Sunday  School  and  Its  Present-Day  Task,  Henry  F.  Cope 
(Revell,  1916);  and  on  the  history  of  the  institution,  The  Evolution  of 
the  Sunday  School,  Henry  F.  Cope  (Pilgrim  Press,  1913). 

246 


THE  COMMITTEE  ON  EDUCATION        247 

necessary  to  show  the  provision  which  the  church  makes  in 
organization  for  the  care  and  oversight  of  the  school. 

THE  COMMITTEE  ON  EDUCATION 

The  first  in  importance  is  the  committee  on  education, 
as  it  is  through  this  committee  that  the  whole  church  con- 
ducts its  instruction.  It  is  the  duty  of  this  body  to  devise 
and  supervise  the  directly  educational  work.  We  can  con- 
sider here  only  the  method  by  which  it  carries  out  its  work 
in  so  far  as  it  concerns  the  general  plan  of  the  church,  leaving 
to  other  treatises  the  application  of  its  plans  through  the 
school. 

The  committee  on  education  will  need — 

First :  The  facts  of  its  field.  It  cannot  provide  for  needs 
until  it  knows  what  those  needs  are.*  It  will  gather  the  facts 
as  to  the  area  for  which  the  church  is  responsible,  the  num- 
ber of  persons  in  the  field,  the  number  of  persons  at  different 
ages,  and,  as  far  as  possible,  the  probable  development  of  the 
population.  Such  facts  are  necessary  in  order  to  make 
proper  physical  provision  for  teaching  and  for  group  work 
among  the  young.  We  need  the  same  facts  here  that  any 
foresighted  school  board  would  seek  before  designing  build- 
ings or  securing  teachers. 

Second:  The  committee  will  make  itself  conversant  with 
the  facts  of  religious  education  through  the  widest  possible 
area.  Its  members  will  know  what  is  being  done  in  other 
places;  they  will  gather  up  information  from  every  possible 
source.     The  church  should  make  it  possible  for  them  to 

*  As  suggesting  the  field  of  investigation,  see  the  author's  articles  on 
"Knowing  the  School's  Community"  and  ''Knowing  the  Pupil's  Life," 
in  The  Pilgrim  Teacher ,  April  and  May,  1917. 


248    DIRECTION  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

possess  modern  literature  on  their  work.  In  the  Hbrary 
will  be  the  books  and  magazines  dealing  with  the  educational 
work  of  the  church. 

Third:  In  order  to  bring  all  the  activities  of  the  church 
in  this  field  into  orderly  relation  one  to  another  the  com- 
mittee will  make  a  study  of  all  that  the  church  is  doing  in 
every  field  of  endeavor.  In  almost  every  church  enough  energy 
is  being  used  to  accomplish  all  its  purposes  if  only  it  were 
properly  co-ordinated  and  directed.  In  the  course  of  time 
new  enterprises  and  forms  of  work  have  been  added  to  the 
programme  of  the  church;  there  seemed  to  be  sufficient  rea- 
son for  their  beginnings,  but  they  are  being  perpetuated  in 
a  traditional  manner.  To-day  the  old  and  the  new  exist 
side  by  side,  and  often  several  organizations  are  covering 
the  same  ground,  duplicating  effort  and  wasting  energy. 

Fourth:  The  committee  will  need  to  see  its  work  in  graphic 
form.  The  survey  of  activities  should  set  down  in  tabulated 
form  all  meetings,  classes,  organizations,  forms  of  service, 
every  type  of  activity.  First  make  a  complete  list  of 
all;  then  arrange  them  under  several  tabulations,  showing 
whether  they  are  for  worship,  instruction,  social  life,  relief, 
play,  general  recreation,  financial  enterprises,  social  service, 
and  whatever  other  types  may  appear. 

ANALYZING  THE  SITUATION 

Next  study  them  under  a  time-tabulation.  Lay  out  a 
week's  time-table  by  hours  and  set  over  against  each  hour 
the  activity  of  that  period.  The  significance  of  such  a  tabu- 
lation would  be  clear  if  it  were  carried  over  into  a  care- 
fully prepared  diagram  or  graph.  There  the  curve  would 
run  high  through  certain  parts  of  Sunday  and  would  be 


ANALYZING  THE  SITUATION  249 

quite  likely  to  disappear  on  other  days  of  the  week.  If, 
further,  a  special  diagram  is  prepared  showing  the  religious 
educational  activities,  the  curve  will  show  up  on  one  hour 
only.  In  other  words,  our  present  plans  carry  the  peak  load 
on  one  day  and  at  one  hour.  The  committee  would  have 
to  study  whether  a  better  distribution  might  not  be  made  as 
to  time  schedules.  Along  with  such  tabulations  there  ought 
to  be  a  study  of  the  time  schedules  of  boys  and  girls  outside 
the  church  in  order  to  plan  for  proper  relations  between  the 
two. 

Another  tabulation  would  be  under  the  head  of  life  periods. 
What  activities  are  for  small  children,  what  for  boys,  for 
girls,  for  young  men,  young  women,  adult  men,  and  adult 
women?  Some  surprises  may  await  there.  There  will  ap- 
pear many  hours  for  adult  men  and  women  and  often  but 
one  for  boys  and  girls.  To  guide  the  committee  the  analy- 
sis might  be  carried  to  greater  detail,  showing  the  provision 
made  for  each  year  up  to  say  twenty. 

One  tabulation  would  be  on  the  materials  of  instruction. 
Granted  that  every  Christian  person  should  be  intelligent 
on  the  following,  in  what  way  does  the  church  provide  for 
instruction  in  these  subjects:  the  Bible,  church  history, 
missions,  practical  Christian  living,  social  service,  church 
work.  Christian  doctrine,  religious  and  Christian  education  ? 
Set  these  down  in  a  column  and  over  against  each  the  or- 
ganization dealing  with  the  subject,  the  number  of  courses, 
teachers  and  classes  and  time.  Such  a  study  will  help  to 
make  clear  just  why  so  many  Christian  people  are  totally 
destitute  of  information  on  subjects  that  are  simply  elemen- 
tary in  religious  knowledge. 

Organizations  and  fields  should  be  the  subject  of  another 


250    DIRECTION  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

study.  How  many  organizations  are  there  and  what  field 
does  each  seek  to  cover,  also  what  is  the  special  function  of 
each  ?  That  usually  serves  to  uncover  a  number  of  duplica- 
tions especially  in  work  with  youth. 

While  we  are  making  anal;>i;ical  studies  we  might  as  well 
include  the  matter  of  cost.  If  it  is  possible  to  arrive  at  any- 
thing like  a  fair  estimate  of  the  money  cost  of  each  activity 
we  will  have  figures  on  which  to  begin  the  work  of  preparing 
a  real  budget.  But  we  will  also  have  one  means,  not  the 
final  one  at  all,  of  determining  the  worth  of  different  activi- 
ties. 

The  last  tafealaldon  will  be  the  most  difficult:  to  determine 
and  analyze  results.  These  may  be  expressed  in  a  variety 
of  ways,  some  simple,  some  very  complex.  Of  course,  re- 
sults (1)  in  church  membership  will  be  included,  since  these 
are  simply  an  indication  of  success  in  securing  the  enlist- 
ment of  lives  in  the  great  purpose  and  work  of  the  church. 
With  all  we  may  say  of  warning  against  the  fallacy  of  num- 
bers we  cannot  go  far  in  the  work  of  the  church  unless  we 
secure  the  enlistment  of  persons  in  its  programme,  the  unit- 
ing of  individuals  in  its  group  loyalties.  Then  results  may 
be  seen  (2)  in  the  enlistment  of  the  activities  of  persons,  (3) 
in  their  developing  efficiency,  (4)  in  effects  of  a  practical  char- 
acter in  the  community,  and,  most  difficult  of  all  to  measure, 
(5)  in  the  conduct  and  characters  of  persons.  Somehow  we 
must  find  out  whether  we  are  really  achieving  the  main  pur- 
poses. The  processes  must  be  alf  tested  in  the  light  of  the 
product.  With  a  programme  of  developing  new  men  and 
women,  is  the  church  really  doing  this?  What  are  the 
effects  of  Sunday-school  teaching?  ^Vhat  fruitage  in  lives 
is  coming  out  of  the  young  people's  organizations  ?    Are  we 


GENERAL  SUPERVISION  251 

able  to  trace  the  life  effects  and  the  social  effects  of  the  ser- 
vices of  worship  ? 

The  organization  which  the  committee  on  education 
directs  is  a  larger  one  than  the  Sunday  school.  It  is  the 
unified,  co-ordinated  educational  work  of  the  whole  church. 
The  next  step  for  the  committee  is  to  see  that  all  the  educa- 
tional activities  are  unified  in  one  comprehensive  organiza- 
tion which  may  be  known  as  "The  School  of  the  Church" 
or,  more  simply,  "The  Church  School."  This  is  the  name 
now  being  widely  adopted.  The  school  which  meets  on 
Sunday  is  a  part  of  the  church  school,  so  also  is  every  other 
form  of  organized  educational  work,  including  the  mission- 
ary classes,  Boy  Scouts,  and  girls'  clubs. 

GENERAL  SUPERVISION 

What  are  the  duties  of  the  committee  on  education  toward 
this  unified  organization,  the  church  school  ? 

The  committee  will:  (1)  Serve  as  a  church  cabinet  on  all 
work  in  religious  education.  (2)  Unify  and  co-ordinate  work 
in  Sunday  school,  young  people's  society,  missionary  so- 
cieties, brotherhoods,  and  other  educational  agencies,  pro- 
viding a  unified  programme  of  religious  education  in  the 
church.  (3)  Pass  upon  courses  of  study,  standards  of 
gradation  and  promotion,  and  departmental  organization. 
(4)  Determine  requirements  of  teaching  and  pass  on  recom- 
mendations to  the  teaching  staff,  appointing,  on  the  recom- 
mendation of  the  superintendent  or  director,  all  officers  and 
teachers  in  the  educational  work.  (5)  Promote  the  interest 
of  the  church  in  religious  education  and  secure  adequate 
support  for  this  work. 

The  committee  will  organize  itself  into  appropriate  sub- 


252    DIRECTION  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

committees:  (1)  Courses  of  study,  determining  the  material 
of  instruction  in  all  departments.  (2)  Organizations,  corre- 
lating the  different  organizations  under  one  plan  of  relig- 
ious education.  (3)  Worship,  improving  tlie  character  and 
quality  of  worship.  (4)  Recreation,  supervising  play,  ath- 
letics, excursions,  and  other  social  activities.  (5)  Training, 
directing  the  classes  and  "laboratory"  work  designed  to 
develop  efhcient  lay  service.  (6)  Service,  overseeing  the 
plans  of  expressional  activities  for  community  betterment. 
(7)  Community  Co-operation,  planning  forms  of  co-operative 
work  with  other  schools  and  other  agencies  in  the  community. 

THE  DIRECTOR 

The  committee  plans,  but  direction  depends  also  on  a 
director.  Therefore,  the  committee  secures  an  individual 
through  whom  its  work  is  applied.  Such  a  person  becomes, 
in  fact,  the  superintendent  of  education  for  the  church.  He 
may  be  an  unpaid  worker,  but,  as  the  work  of  the  church  be- 
comes more  highly  organized,  the  tendency  is  to  secure  one 
who  is  professionally  trained  for  this  task  and  who  is  wholly 
employed  in  it.  If  we  describe  in  some  detail  the  work  of 
the  professional  director  it  will  serve  to  do  two  things:  to 
indicate  the  seriousness  with  which  the  educational  task  is 
now  being  regarded  and  to  show  what  are  the  general  aspects 
of  the  direction  of  educational  work  in  a  church. 

A  director  of  religious  education  represents  a  new  profes- 
sion; the  field  of  service  is  that  of  the  organization  and 
direction  of  the  educational  activities  of  local  churches.* 

*  There  are  employed  in  the  United  States  and  Canada,  according  to 
the  records  in  the  office  of  the  Religious  Education  Association,  146 
trained  directors  of  religious  education  in  churches.     Doubtless,  there 


THE   DIRECTOR  253 

Directors  differ  from  superintendents  of  Sunday  schools  in 
several  respects,  especially  in  that  they  are  professionally 
trained  and  that  they  are  responsible  for  all  the  educational 
work  in  a  church  whether  in  the  Sunday  school  or  in  any 
other  agency. 

The  rise  of  the  directorship  of  religious  education  is  a 
striking  indication  of  the  new  earnestness  and  seriousness  of 
educational  piu-pose  that  has  come  into  the  modern  church 
school  or,  more  exactly,  into  the  programme  of  the  churches 
for  the  education  of  the  young.  The  modern  church  accepts 
its  responsibility  for  religious  instruction,  and,  with  graded 
classes  and  curricidiun,  trained  teachers,  and  special  build- 
ings, it  is  seeking  to  place  its  work  on  a  level  of  eflficiency 
with  the  public  schools. 

There  are  several  institutions  offering  the  necessary  pro- 
fessional training  for  directors  of  religious  education.  The 
course  consists  of  three  years'  vrork,  part  of  which  is  the  same 
as  that  required  for  the  ministry',  with  specialization  in 
psychology-,  pedagogy,  educational  history,  organization,  and 
method  particularly  as  appHed  to  religious  development. 
The  department  of  directors  in  the  Religious  Education 
Association  admits  only  those  who  have  had  a  four-year  col- 
lege course  or  its  equivalent  and  at  least  two  years  of  special 
training  in  religious  education. 

Directors  are  not  assistant  pastors  in  the  usual  acceptance 
of  that  term,  but  are  expert  advisers  and  executive  heads  for 
all  the  educational  work  in  a  church  or  a  group  of  churches. 
Usually  they  hold  authority  in  their  special  field  co-ordinate 

are  many  not  yet  registered  in  this  professional  group.  But  the  num- 
ber is  sufficient,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  some  have  been  employed  for 
seven  years,  to  establish  this  profession  beyond  the  experimental  stage. 


254    DIRECTION  OF  RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

with  the  authority  of  the  pastor.  Therefore  they  are  some- 
times called  associate  pastors.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  they 
have  had  equal  professional  training  they  are  entitled  to 
equal  professional  standing  with  the  pastor. 

The  emphasis  of  the  director's  work  is  on  the  educational 
side.  He  may  direct  play,  but  it  is  with  the  purpose  of  de- 
veloping religious  character.  He  may  superintend  moving- 
picture  presentations,  but  the  aim  is  the  same.  He  is  an 
educator,  a  specialist  in  the  church,  interpreting  and  guiding 
all  activities  under  the  educational  method  and  ideal. 

This  new  profession  offers  decided  attractions  to  young 
men  and  women.  It  is  an  opportunity  to  engage  directly 
in  forms  of  religious  work  based  upon  modern  ideals  and 
scientific  methods.  It  gives  promise  of  contributing  to  the 
greatly  enlarged  usefulness  of  the  churches  and  of  solving 
some  of  their  most  serious  problems.  The  work,  since  it 
deals  principally  with  young  lives,  offers  a  field  of  the  richest 
promise.  Directors  have  an  opportunity  not  alone  to  im- 
prove the  Sunday  schools  but  to  bring  together  in  one 
organization  all  the  young  people  of  the  community. 

The  director  plans  his  work  and  carries  out  his  plans  with . 
the  committee  on  education.  With  him  they  are  directly 
responsible  for  the  actual  educational  organization. 

Some  of  the  most  successful  work  by  directors  is  being 
done  in  relatively  small  places,  as,  for  instance,  at  Winnetka, 
Illinois,  where  a  complete  programme  is  provided  for  all  the 
boys  and  girls  of  the  community  through  the  church,  which 
employs  a  director.  Here  the  young  people  are  busy  in 
games,  classes,  and  social  gatherings  for  as  many  hours  as 
they  may  desire  to  spend  every  day  in  periods  outside  the 
regular  public-school  work.     In  addition  there  are  classes 


THE  DIRECTOR  255 

for  all  the  different  groups  of  adults,  directed  social  activities, 
and  forms  of  educational  stimulus  according  to  their  needs. 
The  directors  of  religious  education  in  North  America 
have  a  special  professional  organization  affiliated  with  the 
Religious  Education  Association. 

REFERENCES 

CoE,  George  Albert,  A  Social  Theory  of  Religious  Education  (Scrib- 

ners,  1917). 
**The  Administration  of  Religious  Education  in  a  Parish,'* 

in  Religums  Education  for  June,  1915. 
BoococK,  W.  H.,  in  Religious  Education,  vol.  X,  February,  1915,  p.  55. 
Cope,  Henry  F.,  in  Religious  Education,  October,  1915,  p.  444. 


CHAPTER  XXII 
THE  CHURCH  AND  NEW  DAYS 

There  are  those  who  tell  us  that  the  days  of  the  church 
are  numbered  and  that  some  new  social  institution  must 
arise  to  take  her  place.  This  might  be  true;  it  is  not  in- 
conceivable, nor  are  we  concerned  for  the  salvation  of  an 
institution  for  its  own  sake.  If  the  one  or  the  chief  duty  of 
the  church  is  to  maintain  itself,  doubtless  it  will  have  to  go 
as  must  every  fruitless  tree  that  cumbers  the  ground.  The 
place  of  the  church  in  the  life  of  to-day,  and  of  to-morrow, 
and  the  permanency  of  that  place,  will  be  determined  solely 
by  the  needs  of  society  and  the  efficiency  of  the  church  in 
meeting  those  needs.  Does  our  world  need  the  church  ?  If 
so,  what  are  the  special  needs  which  the  church  can  best 
meet? 

The  work  of  the  church  seen  as  a  programme  of  religious 
education  gives  a  very  definite  answer  to  that  question. 
There  are  specific  needs  rising  out  of  the  natures  of  persons 
and  out  of  the  nature  of  society  which  to-day  the  church 
alone  is  capable  of  meeting.  These  needs  are  part  of  the 
general  need  for  education,  that  is,  for  directed  social  train- 
ing. Specifically,  they  are  the  needs  for  such  training  in  re- 
ligious living  as  can  be  given  only  under  social  conditions 
by  a  group  organized  socially  for  religious  purposes.  The 
programme  of  religious  education  in  the  church  meets  a  defi- 
nite social  need  which  can  be  met  by  no  other  institution  at 
present. 

256 


DEEPER  RELIGIOUS  REALITY  257 

The  adoption  of  an  educational  plan,  therefore,  gives  to 
all  who  work  in  the  church  the  consciousness  of  a  definite, 
clear,  and  socially  necessary  function.  The  church  ceases  to 
be  a  traditional  form  of  mechanism  for  the  maintenance  of 
outworn  ideas  and  quaint  customs.  No  man  needs  to 
apologize  for  her,  for  she  is  doing  that  which  must  be  done 
and  that  which  no  other  can  do. 

The  programme  of  religious  education  gives  a  sense  of 
vitality  and  reality  to  the  work  of  a  church.  It  is  so  clear,  so 
simple,  so  explicit  that  one  knows  exactly  what  one  is  doing. 
It  has  definite  plans  and  evident  objectives.  Here  are  all  the 
persons  of  the  community;  they  are  to  be  trained  in  relig- 
ious living.  They  are  to  be  taught  to  live  together  as  a  re- 
ligious society.  Here,  especially,  are  the  young  of  the  com- 
munity, the  future  society;  through  religious  training  the 
church  is  seeking  to  insure  that  that  society  shall  be  religious 
in  character.  The  special  sense  of  vitality  comes  from  the 
fact  that  the  work  of  education  deals  directly  with  lives. 
Its  outstanding  duty  is  the  development  of  lives.  Its  chief 
interest  is  as  to  the  kind  of  people  these  boys  and  girls  shall 
become.  What  could  be  more  vital  and  what  could  be 
more  valuable  than  this  work  of  directing  and  stimulating 
the  development  of  personality  into  the  divine  likeness  ? 

DEEPER  RELIGIOUS  REALITY 

The  programme  of  religious  education  in  the  church  gives 
a  new  depth  and  meaning  to  the  spirit  of  reverence.  Every 
true  educator  becomes  a  worshipper.  To  him  is  revealed 
the  wonder  of  the  laws  of  the  growth  of  the  spiritual  life. 
He  enters  the  highest  realm  of  life  and  finds  law  reigning 
here,  too.    He  gains  new  reverence  for  life  itself.     He  learns 


258  THE  CHURCH  AND  NEW  DAYS 

to  see  it  in  the  full  measure  of  its  values.  He  comes  to  see 
it  in  its  divine  aspects.  He  cannot  help  praying,  in  the 
very  finest  sense,  whenever  he  has  a  part  in  the  development 
of  a  life.  In  him  there  grows  a  sense  of  wonder  and  awe  at 
the  very  work  of  religious  education  and  at  the  fact  that  it 
lies  within  the  range  of  his  duties.  He  worships  as  he 
works.  There  grows  all  through  the  church  this  awe  and 
wonder  at  life  unfolding.  Every  spiritual  sense  is  quickened 
in  its  presence.  Religion  becomes  a  life  that  is  experienced 
in  all  the  services  and  activities  of  such  a  church.  All  its 
people  are  working  together  with  the  infinite  spirit  of  life, 
working  for  the  increase  and  fulfilment  of  every  life.  They 
thus  come  to  share  in  the  divine  process  that  ever  w^orks 
through  all  the  universe.  The  very  life  of  that  church  is  in 
itself  a  religious  thing.  It  is  not  a  life  of  activity  about  re- 
ligion; it  is  religion.  So  that  the  church  engaged  in  religious 
education  comes  herself  to  a  fuller  experience  of  religion. 

The  programme  of  religious  education  in  the  church  gives 
a  new  confidence  and  faith  as  to  the  realization  of  her  ideals 
and  hopes.  The  work  of  education  is  based  upon  known 
laws.  In  an  increasing  degree  its  results  are  predictable. 
We  may  work,  so  far  as  the  laws  are  known,  with  as  great 
certainty  in  this  field  as  in  any  other  resting  upon  a  scientific 
basis.  That  is  simply  to  say  that  religious  education  seeks 
to  discover  how  God  works  and  to  follow  methods  which  are 
loyal  to  spiritual  principles.  So  long  as  this  is  done  there  is 
no  room  for  doubt.  Here  we  pass  into  the  realm  of  certi- 
tudes; we  leave  behind  us  random  experiments;  we  discover 
firm  ground  upon  which  we  may  go  forward.  The  religious 
educator  does  not  work  in  the  dark.  He  does  not  expect 
success  simply  because  he  means  well.     He  has  the  light  by 


THE  GROWTH  OF  THE  CHURCH    259 

which  he  may  do  well.  He  knows  why  he  does  this  or  that; 
he  knows  what  to  expect  as  a  consequence  or  result.  What- 
ever his  doubts  as  to  his  own  abilities  he  has  none  as  to  the 
results  when  right  methods  are  properly  used.  This  is  not 
the  confidence  of  pride;  it  is  the  confidence  of  faith  in  law 
and  God. 

THE  GROWTH  OF  THE  CHURCH 

Religious  education  secures  the  spiritual  development  of 
the  church.  One  of  the  distinctive  marks  of  the  Christian 
religion  is  its  prophetic  character.  It  looks  forward  to  de- 
termine the  future.  It  has  been  said  that  religions  are 
always  conservative;  but  Christianity  is  essentially  con- 
structive and  regenerative.  The  true  church  is  not  concerned 
alone  with  preserving  the  past.  It  seeks  only  to  conserve 
the  good  of  the  yesterdays  in  order  to  use  it  as  a  power  to 
make  the  better  to-morrow.  It  never  can  be  satisfied  with 
things  as  they  are,  for  it  holds  ideals  so  lofty  that  they  are 
ever  drawing  it  on  to  new  endeavors. 

Moreover,  the  modern  church  is  constantly  under  the  pres- 
sure of  progress.  Realizing  her  social  nature  and  responsibil- 
ities, she  is  consciously  a  part  of  the  current  social  life. 
This  life  is  ever  changing  and  developing  like  an  organism. 
To  its  developing  character  she  must  adapt  her  programme 
and  according  to  its  developing  needs  she  must  arrange  her 
work. 

But  the  church  is  an  institution,  and  the  most  serious 
problem  of  every  social  institution  is  the  maintenance  of 
the  prophetic  mind.  How  is  it  possible,  with  institutional 
tendencies  toward  conservatism,  with  the  total  gravity  of 
institutionalism  toward  the  status  quo,  to  keep  the  church 


260  THE  CHURCH  AND  NEW  DAYS 

really  in  the  currents  of  life  ?  How  can  the  institution  con- 
serve the  force  and  values  of  the  past  and  still,  in  full  sym- 
pathy with  the  present,  lead  forward  into  the  future  ?  The 
educational  programme  furnishes  the  answer.  The  essen- 
tial idea  of  education  is  development.  It  is  always  prophetic. 
But  it  uses  as  one  of  the  constant  forces  for  forward  move- 
ment the  experience  and  ideals  of  the  past. 

One  condition  constantly  menaces  every  prophetic  in- 
stitution, that  of  crystallization.  A  fixed  educational  pro- 
gramme planned  to  cover  the  needs  of  many  decades  may 
be  hopelessly  antiquated  in  less  than  one.  The  adoption  of 
any  fixed  programme  tends  to  defeat  the  prophetic  end. 
The  work  of  education  for  the  new  day  is  possible  only  to 
those  who  hold  a  growing  faith  in  many  new  days,  who  are 
unwilling  to  accept  any  one  as  the  finality.  Hospitality  to 
new  ideas  and  a  forward-facing  mind  will  characterize  all 
who  lead  here.  This  will  not  result  in  a  state  of  uncer- 
tainty. It  will  not  invalidate  programmes,  for  progranmies 
are  possible  to  vital  institutions  only  where  there  is  promise 
of  progress.  Religious  education  will  train  us  to  take  with 
certainty  the  steps  of  to-day  in  the  light  of  all  the  days;  but 
it  will  insist  that  they  are  steps  and  not  mere  marking  time. 
We  have  learned  to  regard  education  as  growth;  we  must 
accustom  ourselves  to  expecting  growth  and  to  realizing  that 
personal  growth  inevitably  effects  social  growth. 

The  adoption  of  the  educational  programme  is  the  essen- 
tial step  of  preparation  to  meet  the  needs  of  new  days. 
Where  growth  is  there  change  will  be.  The  world  must  be 
ever  in  the  making,  travailing  to  bring  forth  each  day  a 
better  world.  If  growth  is  going  on — in  other  words,  if  God 
is  really  working  in  this  world — we  must  accept  the  fact  that 


THE  GROWTH  OF  THE  CHURCH    261 

the  world  in  which  our  children  will  live  will  be  different 
from  our  world.  If  we  believe  in  growth,  must  we  not  also 
direct  our  education  for  purposes  of  growth?  The  more 
truly  education  is  religious  the  more  will  it  be  a  steady 
moving  forward  into  the  realization  of  ever-enlarging  ideals. 
Surely  this  is  religion :  faith  in  a  future  that  has  larger  values 
and  significances  than  we  have  yet  known,  in  a  universe  in 
which  there  is  room  to  grow  and  to  come  at  last  to  the 
realization  of  all  that  we  have  dimly  felt  and  highly  hoped, 
and  perhaps  to  find  that  only  the  threshold  of  a  larger, 
richer  world  that  will  include  all  our  hopes  and  hungers 
for  complete,  spiritual,  personal  relationships. 

The  method  of  teaching  in  the  modern  church  contributes 
to  the  habit  of  mind  which  accepts  growth  and  development 
as  normal.  This  is  one  of  the  direct  benefits  arising  from 
the  "historical  method"  of  biblical  study.  It  views  the 
story  of  ancient  religions  as  a  record  of  progress.  It  dis- 
covers the  steady  unfolding  of  new  ideals.  Religion  is  seen 
as  man's  answer  to  the  vision  before  him,  man's  stepping, 
often  in  strange  ways  and  with  many  a  slip  and  a  fall,  but 
still  stepping  forward  into  clearer  light.  Truth  is  no  longer 
static;  it  is  vital.  The  revelation  grows.  Thus  studying 
the  record  of  religion  the  mind  acquires  the  habit  of  thinking 
of  religious  truth  not  as  a  thing  but  as  a  process.  Whether 
in  the  pulpit  or  in  the  class  this  value  must  be  conserved. 
This  sense  of  development  always  at  work  and  still  working 
is  often  missed  in  comparing  the  old  and  the  new.  The 
teacher,  in  the  enthusiasm  of  the  new  view,  often  has  em- 
phasized the  external  factors  or  has  been  inclined  to  en- 
large the  details  of  the  materials  discovered  and  to  glory  in 
these.    There  is  a  temptation  to  take  pugnacious  delight  in 


262  THE  CHURCH  AND  NEW  DAYS 

declaring,  with  much  show  of  rare  courage,  that  there  may 
have  been  fourteen  Isaiahs  or  even  none  at  all.  In  the  de- 
lights of  iconoclasm  it  is  easy  to  forget  that  the  shattered 
forms  were  prisons  of  living  ideas.  It  is  easy  to  classify  en- 
thusiastically the  fragments  while  we  let  the  living  spirit 
escape.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  possible  to  teach  the  an- 
cient Scriptures  so  that  those  who  learn,  with  a  flame  of  high 
devotion  kindled  in  them,  and  with  dynamic  faith  in  life 
as  growth,  shall  write  the  Bible  of  our  day,  to  shed  its  light 
down  the  new  days.  The  application  of  the  educational 
method,  then,  tends  to  develop  an  attitude  of  mind  which 
accepts  growth  as  normal.  It  cultivates  hospitality  to  new 
views  of  truth. 

RELIGION  A  PRESENT-DAY  REALITY 

The  programme  of  religious  education  gives  to  all  those 
whose  lives  are  developing  in  the  church  a  new  sense  of  the 
present-day  reality  of  religion.  This  is  due,  first,  to  the  imme- 
diate contact  which  modern  teaching  makes  with  the  realities 
of  experience.  The  curriculum  is  not  designed  as  a  journey 
of  archaeological  exploration.  It  is  not  concerned  principally 
with  making  children  familiar  with  the  remote  past.  It 
teaches  life.  Whatever  wealth  it  brings  from  other  days  is 
for  the  enriching  of  this  day.  It  seeks  to  make  the  great 
men  and  women  of  the  long  ago  living  and  real  to  us  only 
that  our  own  lives,  and  the  lives  of  those  we  teach,  may  be 
stronger  and  better.  It  gives  a  light  to  the  patli  the  pupil 
now  treads.  It  makes  all  the  difference  to  any  child  when  he 
realizes  he  is  not  discharging  a  task  of  lessons  but  he  is 
learning  something  about  his  own  life  and  his  own  world. 

This  sense  of  present-day  reality  is  further  strengthened 


RELIGION  A  PRESENT-DAY  REALITY     263 

by  the  direct  treatment  of  present-day  religion.  We  cease 
to  lead  the  child  to  think  that  the  Most  High  has  been  dumb 
ever  since  Patmos.  On  the  contrary,  if  we  really  have  faith 
in  life  as  growth,  we  are  forced  to  believe  that,  unless  man  has 
marked  a  sad  recessional,  God  is  being  heard  yet  more  clearly 
with  every  new  day.  We  begin  to  believe  that  the  centuries 
since  Jesus  have  more  for  us  than  those  that  went  before,  not 
only  that  God  has  yet  more  light  to  break  forth  from  his 
word  but  that  he  is  ever  speaking  and  we  are  hearing  new 
words.  It  would  be  an  insult  to  inJSnite  affection  to  doubt 
this.  No  longer  will  children,  or  adults,  think  of  these  eigh- 
teen centuries  gone  as  a  long,  dark  way  illumined  only  by  a 
great  light  at  their  beginning  and  by  occasional  torches  car- 
ried aloft  by  certain  denominational  leaders. 

Religion  becomes  native  to  our  day.  A  deep  need  of  edu- 
cation for  the  new  day  is  such  teaching  on  the  eternal  reali- 
ties in  every-day  experience  as  shall  make  it  axiomatic  to 
even  the  least  child  that  this,  our  present  day,  is  a  divine  era. 
We  shall  never  be  fit  for  the  future  until  we  have  faith  in  the 
present,  until  the  present  is  as  sacred  as  the  past,  this  land 
as  holy  as  any  land,  and  God  as  present  as  he  has  ever  been. 

The  church,  accepting  her  work  of  training  persons  for 
righteous  living,  gives  at  least  as  much  attention  to  the 
Christian  centuries  as  to  those  which  went  before  with  their 
dark  beginnings,  bloodshed,  and  dim  gropings  after  God  and 
truth.  It  may  yet  give  more  time,  issue  more  text-books, 
and  devote  more  attention  to  this  neglected  period  of  rev- 
elation, this  untilled  field  of  heroism,  devotion,  idealism, 
faith,  and  progress.  That  will  not  be  to  slight  that  past; 
it  will  be  to  honor  its  fruitage  and  fulfilment.  That  will 
free  us  from  the  ghost  of  traditionalism,  the  superstitious 


264  THE  CHURCH  AND  NEW  DAYS 

notion  that  nothing  since  A.  D.  90  can  have  any  religious 
value.  To  youth  Savonarola  will  have  larger  values  and 
power  than  Samuel  and  Garibaldi,  or  Chinese  Gordon  may 
mean  much  more  than  Joshua.  What  right  have  we  to  so 
emphatically  teach  that  the  bud  was  sacred  and  the  flower  is 
profane  ?  God  is  not  the  god  of  the  dead  but  of  the  living ! 
Moreover,  this  sense  of  present-day  reality  is  strengthened 
by  facing  to-day's  problems.  When  the  church  seriously  at- 
tempts education  for  the  new  day  she  does  not  dodge  behind 
the  dialectics  of  the  past  to  escape  the  duties  of  the  present. 
No  one  even  thinks  of  the  new  day  without  keen  realization 
of  social  readjustments.  This  is  the  age  of  the  social  em- 
phasis. To-day  the  individual  is  for  the  sake  of  the  all. 
Almost  all  our  modern  readjustments  are  occasioned  by  this 
fact.  The  church,  in  her  educational  capacity,  especially  in 
her  school,  recognizes  her  responsibility  in  relation  thereto. 
While  there  are  many  voices  offering  explicit  teaching  and 
definite  programmes  for  the  new  social  ideals,  the  voice  of 
the  church  to-day  is  heard  with  new  authority  and  clarity. 
Why  this  new  note?  Is  it  not  because  the  educational  em- 
phasis has  quickened  a  new  sense  of  lives  and  of  living  reali- 
ties ?  The  school  of  the  church  accepts  the  task  of  training 
men  for  righteous  living,  right  living  in  this  world,  this  social 
order,  to-day.  Brought  to  face  the  problems  of  developing 
righteous  lives,  she  comes  to  realize  how  largely  social  malad- 
justments and  injustice  defeat  her  purposes.  She  discovers 
that  she  must  directly  teach  social  living  in  the  light  of 
religious  ideals,  as  a  spiritual  duty.  She  knows  we  cannot 
have  a  right  world  till  we  have  righteous  people,  but  also  we 
cannot  have  people  right  until  society  is  set  right.  No 
longer  content  with  sporadic  sermons,  occasional  lectures. 


PROPHETIC  INSTRUCTION  265 

and  brief  series  of  studies  and  discussions,  she  is  pre- 
paring courses  suited  to  the  different  grades  on  social 
duties  and  institutions.  Why  teach  Hebrew  institutions 
and  neglect  modern  organized  charities,  relief  problems,  and 
methods  of  reform  ?  Do  not  all  these  belong  to  the  religious 
life?  If  we  do  not  teach  social  living  as  a  religious  duty, 
who  will  ? 

PROPHETIC  INSTRUCTION 

As  an  agency  of  instruction  the  church  does  not  abandon 
her  prophetic  function.  Religious  education  is  not  content 
with  the  present  and  with  the  duty  of  preparing  lives  for 
the  existing  social  order.  It  looks  forward  because  it  deals 
with  those  who  must  live  to-morrow  in  a  different  order  of 
society.  It  gathers  up  the  light  of  the  days  that  have  been 
only  to  give  light  to  the  days  that  are  to  be.  It  reveals  the 
race  heritage  of  the  rich  past  only  that  we  may  have  vision 
and  strength  to  push  on  and  make  the  future  yet  richer. 
The  religious  instruction  of  the  young  must  keep  in  mind 
the  fact  that  they  will  live,  not  alone  that  they  are  living. 
Their  world  will  be  other  than  ours;  we  believe  it  will  be 
further  along  the  way.  In  the  years  of  the  Great  War  and 
the  making  of  a  new  world  the  church  does  not  stand  aloof. 
The  educational  programmes  save  it  from  cloistered  separa- 
tion. When  the  world  moves  on  it  must  lead,  for  its  task  is 
that  of  training  lives  for  that  world.  Through  developing 
lives  it  comes  closer  to  the  work  of  world-making  than  any 
other  institution.  As  it  touches  the  springs  of  conduct,  the 
sources  where  character  rises,  it  determines  the  character 
of  the  future. 

The  consciousness  of  this  great  task  is  constantly  calling 


266  THE  CHURCH  AND  NEW  DAYS 

for  an  examination  of  all  curricula  in  the  light  of  the  question: 
Is  this  instruction  planned  with  reference  to  the  actual  life 
needs  of  the  pupil  in  the  present  and  in  coming  years  ?  The 
educational  ideal  establishes  new  standards  of  instruction. 
It  requires  us  to  look  into  the  future  with  spiritual  vision. 
It  tests  our  faith  as  to  whether  we  really  can  have  a  world 
of  God's  will.  It  calls  on  us  to  demonstrate  that  faith  by 
preparing  the  young  to  live  in  such  a  world.  It  gives  new 
reality  to  Isaiah's  splendid  vision  of  a  redeemed  land.  His 
poetic  appeals  become  the  passion  of  our  patriotism.  It 
compels  us  to  realize  his  vision  in  our  world  and  our  social 
order. 

When  she  faces  the  future  the  church  may  do  so  with 
confidence  that  she  holds  the  one  solution  of  its  problems. 
The  new  age  waits  for  new  people.  All  social  planning  will 
fail,  all  machinery  of  reform  and  regulation  will  be  fruitless, 
and  all  attempts  at  building  a  new  world  by  legislation  will 
collapse  unless  we  can  touch  the  springs  of  human  life  in  the 
motives,  ideals,  and  wills  of  men.  This  is  the  field  of  re- 
ligious education  and  the  function  of  the  church,  to  make  a 
new  world  by  and  through  men  and  women  to  whom  all  life 
is  new  because  it  is  seen  in  new  terms,  in  new  relations.  The 
church  confidently  goes  forward  forming  the  new  world  by 
making  the  new  society  which  consists  of  new  persons. 

THE  EDUCATIONAL  APPEAL  TO   YOUTH 

The  programme  of  education  gives  the  growing  young 
person  a  new  sense  of  the  dignity  and  worth  of  the  church.  To 
put  the  matter  in  their  own  forceful  terms:  it  becomes  evi- 
dent that  "the  church  means  business"  with  them.  Young 
people  discover  values  by  very  direct  processes.    They  look 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  APPEAL  TO  YOUTH    267 

for  direct  worth  to  themselves.  They  have  a  right  to  look 
for  this  in  the  church.  They  find  it  when  it  ministers  directly 
to  their  needs.  They  appreciate  it  when  it  teaches  them  the 
way  of  the  best  life.  Perhaps  those  who  are  younger  are 
most  of  all  impressed  by  the  mechanisms  of  education. 
They  see  that  the  church  treats  them  as  seriously  as  the  public 
school  does.  They  come  to  believe  in  an  institution  that 
believes  in  them. 

The  programme  of  education  provides  for  a  normal  rela- 
tion for  every  person  to  the  church.  It  relates  itself  to  every 
life.  It  gives  the  child,  at  every  stage  of  his  development, 
a  sense  of  really  belonging.  This  is  because  the  forms  of 
its  ministry  are  determined  by  the  needs  of  his  life.  Thus 
he  comes  to  think  of  the  church  as  his  church  in  just  the  same 
way  as  he  thinks  of  his  week-day  school  as  his  school.  The 
possessive  sense  rises  not  out  of  any  property  right  nor  out 
of  any  power  of  government.  It  rises  out  of  the  fact  that 
the  institution  is  determined  by  the  life  to  which  it  ministers. 

The  programme  of  religious  education  in  the  church  offers 
to  each  one  a  programme  of  life.  This  is  the  case  because 
modern  education  is  essentially  the  organization  of  a  pro- 
gramme of  life.  In  childhood  and  youth,  in  young  man- 
hood and  age  this  programme  offers  every  one  the  realities 
of  experience.  It  is  a  continuous  programme.  There  need 
be  no  breaks.  The  experience  offered  to  the  boy  of  fifteen 
is  just  as  real  and  full  of  meaning  as  that  offered  to  the  little 
child  or  to  the  adult.  Therefore  relations  to  the  church  are 
continuous.  It  has  a  place  for  this  boy  just  as  truly  as  it 
has  for  his  father;  it  is  just  as  natural  to  the  boy  as  the 
father's  place  is  to  adult  life.  It  is  natural  because  it  is 
his  part  in  life.    It  meets  the  hunger  of  the  young  for  activ- 


268  THE  CHURCH  AND  NEW  DAYS 

ity.  It  offers  to  the  youth  many  forms  of  ideal  service.  At 
every  point  it  meets  the  needs  of  his  life,  for  the  programme 
is  being  determined  with  those  needs  in  mind.  At  every 
step  it  indicates  the  duty  to  be  done,  the  new  steps  to  be 
taken.  It  guides  in  a  life  experience.  Young  people  live 
in  such  a  church.  The  experience  of  living  creates  a  unity 
that  is  implicit.  Such  a  church  is  not  as  one  standing  be- 
side life  calling  a  few  to  leave  its  ways  and  walk  with  her. 
The  church,  in  all  her  work  and  experiences,  is  a  way  of  life. 
The  young  grow  up  and  find  in  her  life  the  opportunities 
they  always  seek  for  wider,  deeper,  higher  living. 

Does  some  one  say,  this  is  an  idealized  picture,  a  prophecy 
born  of  hope  and  theory  ?  The  answer  is  to  be  seen  in  the 
large  number  of  churches  where  the  plans  which  have  been 
advocated  are  already  in  operation.  And  further  evidence 
of  the  practicability  of  the  plans  and  the  value  of  the  ideals 
is  seen  in  the  much  larger  number  in  which  efforts  are  being 
made  to  adopt  an  educational  programme.  Under  practi- 
cally every  plan  described,  under  every  ideal  emphasized, 
specific  instances  could  have  been  cited  where  a  church  or 
often  many  churches  were  actually  doing  these  very  things. 
It  has  seemed  best  to  omit  descriptions  of  particular  plans 
principally  because  of  the  diverting  burden  of  details  and 
also  because  all  plans  are  commonly  in  a  state  of  develop- 
ment so  far  as  the  exact  particulars  of  method  are  concerned. 
But  all  those  who  really  know  the  life  of  the  churches  must 
know  that  there  are  many  now  thoroughly  organized  on  an 
educational  basis.  They  must  know  that  this  is  a  present- 
day  movement  of  tremendous  vitality,  that  it  includes  every 
country  in  the  world  and  its  leaders  are  also  the  active, 
recognized  leaders  in  the  work  of  the  church. 


THE  EDUCATIOXAL  APPEAL  TO  YOLTH    269 

Can  one  doubt  as  to  the  future  of  such  a  church?  It  is 
doing  the  work  that  God  has  ever  been  doing,  guiding  the  race 
into  fulness  of  living.  Its  success  depends  not  on  any  sub- 
tleties of  plans  or  intricacies  of  mechanism  but  on  its  loyalty 
to  tlie  spirit  of  life.  It  moves  in  harmony  with  that  eternal 
spirit  of  life  that  has  brought  our  race  on  through  all  its 
stages  of  development.  It  is  a  divine  institution  because  it 
is  part  of  the  divine  process  of  progress.  It  is  a  di\dne  in- 
stitution because  it  is  doing  this  supreme  work  of  develop- 
ing religious  lives  and  religious  living.  This,  too,  is  what 
makes  it  an  educational  institution,  for  what  is  education 
in  its  many  forms  but  parts  of  the  process  of  developing  lives 
according  to  the  di^Tne  laws  ? 

And  so  they  who  work  according  to  the  divine  laws,  under 
the  educational  ideal  in  the  church,  see  the  vision  of  a  re- 
deemed world.  They  look  out  on  a  world  torn,  bleeding, 
blindly  reaching  out  its  hands  in  a  hunger  it  does  not  under- 
stand. They  know  the  world  seeks  life;  its  eyes  must  be 
opened  to  know  the  abiding  riches  of  life;  its  feet  must  be 
guided  in  the  ways  of  justice  and  truth;  it  must  be  trained 
to  live  the  social  order  of  the  great,  common,  divine  family. 
They  of  such  a  church,  therefore,  begin  their  work  with  lives. 
Their  ministry  is  wholly  to  lives.  By  the  fruitage  m  persons 
and  in  society  they  judge  all  their  work.  Such  a  church 
becomes  the  minister  and  means  of  life  to  all  men.  The 
world  knows  its  mission  is  that  of  giving  fulness  of  life.  It 
stands  in  the  world  of  men  and  by  all  its  ways  and  all  its 
work  it  says:  " I  am  come  that  they  might  have  life  and  that 
they  might  have  it  more  abundantly." 


INDEX 


Abilities,  "native"  and  acquired,  163 

Action,  attraction  through,  95 

Activities  as  clue  to  social  organiza- 
tion, 130 

Activity  as  a  means  of  training,  170 

Activity,  principle  of,  179 

Acti\aty  in  service,  140 

Adjustment  of  church  to  other  agen- 
cies, 2 

Adolescence,  needs  of  period,  177 

Adults,  courses  for,  98 

Adults,  evangeUsm  for,  90 

Advertising,  educational  methods  of, 
92 

Amusement  problem,  156 

Artistic  elements  in  worship,  61 

Athletic  leagues,  204 

Athletics,  place  of,  199,  201 

Attention,  problems  of  poptQar,  91 

Bible  readings  in  schools.  225 

Bible  study,  academic  recognition  of, 

226 
Bible  studJ^  improvements  in,  243, 

261 
Biblical  basis  of  curriculum,  164 
Board  of  Education  in  church,  240, 

247 
Body,  training  the,  192 
Boy  Scouts,  value  of,  202 
Buildings  for  education,  243 

Camp  Fu-e  Girls,  value  of,  202 
Caste  lines  in  churches,  136 
Character  and  en%'ironment,  21,  23 
Character  growth,  complexity  of,  20 
Child,  reUgious  nature  of,  104  /. 
"Christian  Endeavor,"  social  basis  of, 

129,  174 
Church,  advantages  in  education,  48 
Church,  educational  characteristics  of, 

41 
Church,  reasons  for  existence  of,  24-25 
Church  school,  inadequacy  of,  231 
City  churches,  155 
Coeducation  in  church,  127 
Colorado  plan   of  high-school   Bible 

study,  226 


Committee  on  Religious  Education, 
247 

Commimion  in  worship,  55 

Community,  adjustment  to,  9 

Community  co-ordination,  153,  158 

Commimity  council,  159 

Commimity  directors,  240 

Community,  rural,  148  /. 

Community  School  of  Rehgion,  229, 
242 

Commimity  service  for  yoimg  peo- 
ple, 129 

Community  welfare,  147 

Competition  of  social  agencies,  11 

Conversion  as  an  epochal  experience, 
106 

Conversion,  perverted  ideas  on,  80 

Co-operation  in  religious  instruc- 
tion, 229 

Coimtry  churches,  148  /. 

Courtship,  place  of,  127 

Courtship,  training  in,  216 

Criticism  of  church,  3,  6 

Curriculum  for  community  living,  154 

Curriculum  for  service,  164  /. 

Curriculmn  for  social  li\ing,  149 

Curriculum  for  young  people,  185 

Curriculum  of  church,  243 

Curriculum  of  week-day  instruction, 
232 

Daily  vacation  Bible  schools,  225 
Direction  and  supervision,  246,  257 
Directors  of  religious  education,  240, 
252 

Economic  changes  affecting  church,  10 
Economic  test,  the,  14 
Education,  laws,  importance  of,  45 
Education,  meaning  of,  28 
Education,  meaning  of,  in  church,  38 
Education,  moral  and  spiritual  na- 
ture of,  30  /. 
Education,  personal  aim  in,  29 
Education,  religious,  defined,  36 
Education,  religious  quaUty  in,  34 
Educational  and    evangelistic  aims, 
78.  108 


271 


272 


INDEX 


Educational  programme,  principles  of, 

40,  43 
Educator's  faith,  41 
EflQciency  test  of  the  church,  256 
Emotions  in  worship,  64 
Entertainment  concept  of  worship,  51 
Environment,  determining,  139 
Environment,  duty  of  controlling,  21 
Expression  through  action,  107,  179 
Evangel,  the  educational,  99 
Evangelism,  function  of,  78 
Evangelistic  duty  of  church,  87 
Evangelists  vs.  evangelism,  81 

Family,  its  relations  to  church,  209 
Family  problems,  conferences  on,  217 
Family  worship  and  church,  219 
Fathers'  conferences,  218 
Financial  support  of  education,  241 
"Foreigner,"  Christian  view  of,  112 
Friendship,  uses  of,  for  youth,  177 
Fimction  of  chin-ch,  16,  26  - 
Future,  facing  the,  264 

Gary  (Ind.)  plan  of  religious'  instruc- 
tion, 227 

Growth,  vital  processes  in  educa- 
tional, 103 

Gymnasimn,  problem  of,  206 

Habits,  training  in,  for  service,  169 
Health,  education  for,  195 
High-school  age,  social  life  in,  126 
Historical  method  of  study,  effect  of, 

261 
Home,  preaching  on  the,  211 
Home,  service  toward  the,  209 
Home-makers,  training  the,  214 
Home  missions,  changed  concepts  of, 

111 
Hymns  in  worship,  63,  64 

Individualism  of  revivalism,  85 
"Infant  damnation"  rejected,  106 
Information-acquisition    and    educa- 
tion, 38 
Institutionalism,  danger  of,  21 
Instruction  in  religion,  the  problem 

of,  236 
Interesting  the  outsider,  91 

Josiah  Strong's  message,  133 

Knowledge,  religious  objections  to,  80 

Laboratory  training,  169 
Law,  reign  of,  in  education,  103 


Lay  service,  place  and  value  of,  162 
Lay  workers,  training,  162 
Leadership,    professional,    239,    252, 

401 
Learning  by  doing,  171 
Leisure  hom-s,  use  of,  157 
Life,  the  aim  in  education,  100 
Loyalties,  developing  in  young,  181 

Maiden  school  of  religious  education, 

225 
Mass  appeals  in  religion,  88 
Materials   of  instruction,    analyzing 

the,  249 
Measurements  in  religious  education, 

250 
Missionary  education,  113 
Missions,  foreign,  place  of,  109  /. 
Modem  world,  rehgious  reality  in,  262 
Moral  process  in  education,  30 
Morality,  basis  of,  31 
Morality,  spiritual  significance,  32 
Motives  in  relation  to  religion,  33 
Music  in  worship,  62 

"New  Era"  (reference  to),  133 

New  York  City  plan  of  week-day  in- 
struction, 225 

North  Dakota  plan  of  high-school 
Bible  study,  226 

Nurture,  principles  of,  104 

Ofiacers,  process  of  selecting,  166 
Organizing  for  education,  234 
Organizing  yoimg  people,  182,   183, 
185 

Pageant,  teaching  through,  94 
Parent-teacher  associations,  219 
Parents'  classes,  215 
Pastoral  leadership  for  youth,  177 
Personal  aims  of  church.  17 
Personality,  miity  of,  191 
Physical  conditions  in  worship,  55,  61 
Physical     conditions,     responsibility 

for,  197,  212 
Physical  training  in  church,  191 
Play,  in  church  progi'amme,  199,  201 
Play,  problem  of,  156 
Politics,  world,  duty  of  knowing,  115 
Preaching  as  teaching,  66 
Preaching,  educational  principles  of, 

68 
Preacliing,  purpose  of,  76 
Product  of  chvirch,  18 
Professional  direction,  252 
Professional  training  of  directors,  253 


INDEX 


273 


Programme  of  life.  267  ' 
Propaganda  of  church,  19 
Prophetic    fimction    of    preaching, 

67,  75 
Prophetic  mind,  maintaining  the,  259 
Public  education,  significance  of,  124 
Public  school,  church  and,  221 
Public  worship,  function  of,  50,  54  /. 
Pulpit,  teaching  in  the,  70 

Racial  prejudices,  overcoming,  116 
Recreation,  place  of,  199,  201 
Recreation  problem,  156  /. 
Religion,  defined,  34 
Religious  education  defined,  36 
Religious     education     distinguished 

from  general  education,  42 
Religious  knowledge  for  public-school 

pupils,  222 
Religious  knowledge,  situation  as  to, 

236 
Religious  reality  in  education,  257 
Results,  analyzing,  250 
Reverence,  spirit  of,  developed,  259 
Revival,  results  sought,  83 
Revivalism,  dangers  of,  83 
Revivals,  commercial  aspects  of,  87 
Rural  community,  148  /. 

Salvation  by  evangelism,  81 

School  as  society,  120 

Scientific  basis  of  church  programme, 

45 
Sermon,  place  of.  74 
Service,  attractive  power  of,  94 
Service,  graded  social,  141 
Service,  training  for,  162 
Settlement,  the,  learning  from,  135 
Sex,  instruction  on,  195/.,  218 
Social  agencies,  bom  of  church,  13 
Social    agencies,    competition    with, 

11 
Social  basis  of  church,  17 
Social  basis  of  education,  120 
Social  basis  of  worship,  55  /, 
Social  changes,  effect  of,  on  church,  7 
Social  concept  of  religion,  134,  139 
Social  evangeUsm,  102 
Social  gathering,  young  people,  187 
Social  gospel,  143 
Social  habituations,  136 
Social  hygiene,  197 
Social  life  of  young  people,  174 
Social  Life,  place  of,  120 
Social  living  in  current  world,   112, 

116 
Social  motives,  132 


Social  nature  of  religious  education; 

134 
Social  organizations,  124 
Social  problems  of  this  day,  264 
Social  process  in  education,  30 
Social  psychology,  importance  of,  122 
Social  service,  educational  programme 

of,  132 
Social  service  for  the  young,  179 
Social  studies,  143 
Social  imity  of  modem  world,  109 
Society,  Christian,  the  aim  of  a,  137 
Society,  modem  world,  109  /, 
Specialization  in  social  ministry,  12 
Spiritual  elements  in  practical  life,  26 
Spiritual  process  in  education,  33 
Sunday  school  in  relation  to  Y.  P. 

Society.  186 
Sunday  school,  sociaflife  of,  124 
Sunday  schools,  inadequacy  of,  231 
Sunday  services,  popular  concepts  of, 

50/. 
Supervision  of  educational  work,  246, 

251 
Surveys  of  field,  247 
Symbols,  appeal  through,  94 

Teacher- training,  limitations  of,  165 
Teacher-training,  programme  of,  244 
Teaching,  congregational,  66  /. 
Teaching  in  worship,  60 
Theology,     individual,     and     social 

ideals,  135 
Time  schedules  of  children.  248 
Training  in  social  service,  142 
Training  lay  workers,  162 
Training,  relation  to  spiritual  growth, 

172 
Training,  supervisors  of,  167 
Training,  types  of  courses,  167 

Uniting  church  effort,  152 

Vacation  Bible  schools,  225 

Week-day  instruction  and  Sunday- 
schools,  232 

Week-day  instruction,  responsibility 
for,  230 

Wenner  plan  of  religious  instmction, 
227 

Will,  developing,  in  service,  182 

World  education,  111 

World-neighboring,  110 

Worship  and  sermon,  76 

Worship  as  educative  process,  56 

Worship  defined,  55 


274 


INDEX 


Worship,  organizing  the  factors,  60 
Worship,  public,  function  of,  50,  54  /. 
Worship,  relation  to  teaching,  72 
Worship,  teaching  through,  60 

Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  Y.  W.  C  A.,  relations 

to  church  (f.  n.),  20 
Y.  M.  C.  A.,  relations  to,  205 
Young  people  and  recreation,  157 
Young     people,     educational     pro- 
gramme for,  175 
Young  people,  meetings  of,  174,  187 


Yoimg  people,  problem  of  the,  173 
Young  people,  social  organization  of, 

126 
Yoimg  people,  social  programmes  of, 

174 
Young  People's  Society  and  the  church 

school,  155 
Yoxmg  People's  Society,  place  of,  128, 

173 
Y.  W.  C   A.,  relations  to,  205 
Youth  and  church  membership,  178 
Youth,  programme  of  church  for,  176 


Date  Due 

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